Enbridge installing supports for Great Lakes oil pipeline

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Enbridge says it has begun installing steel supports on an oil pipeline in Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac, where erosion has created a gap between the line and the lake bottom.

The Canadian company based in Calgary, Alberta, said Tuesday it had received a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to install 54 supports along the Line 5 pipe in the waterway connecting Lakes Huron and Michigan.

The work is needed because the space beneath the line exceeds than 75 feet in length, the maximum allowed under an agreement with the state. Company spokesman Ryan Duffy says the job should be finished later this week.

Enbridge previously has installed 147 screw anchors since 2002 on Line 5’s dual pipes to deal with other gaps that formed beneath them.