Environmental and Archaeological Assessments: Proposed right of way will be staked out with markers, and contractors will do assessments in chosen locations.

Pulling stakes in marked right of ways is low risk in most situations and easy. If stakes go missing early on in a project the site will need to be re-surveyed and remarked causing a delay in project, as well as cost.

 

Site prep: Clearing trees, vegetation and right of ways. Often happens in winter. There may be the stockpiling of wooden construction mats in temporary work areas to lay out at sites (needed so heavy equipment doesn’t sink in muddy fields)

Equipment left unattended overnight is vulnerable – and damn expensive. Sometimes crews gather all the equipment in one area and have security nearby. Those wooden mats make good fuel for a fire and heavy equipment can’t move in without them. Newer equipment can have remote monitoring equipment installed – lighting, cameras, and wireless uplinks to security companies. TOG systems designs systems like these and is a named subcontractor for the CGL pipeline. Yet some equipment is left completely unattended. Do your scouting to get a handle on what you’re walking in to. Do your reading (may we suggest the Earth Liberation Front Direct Action Manual?) to know what your plan is and get out asap.

 

Grade and strip: Leveling of the right of way, stripping the topsoil and piling it aside.

Again, the equipment is the key here. Try finding the local companies renting out equipment to the company, if they don’t own their own. A few pricey attacks against equipment and subcontracting companies are sure to cause at least some hesitations, albeit more surveillance – so wait until the time is right.

This is a good time to be keeping an eye out for pipe storage yards, or heavy equipment contractors/storage yards. Pipe for large projects is ordered at least a year in advance and can’t necessarily be re-fulfilled on short notice. Getting to pipeline in a storage yard presents both risk and a challenge – but delaying the project by a year or more can be done with good timing, and a lot of people with a lot of nerve.

 

Stringing: Laying out new pipe segments in the right of way. Pipes are often trucked in and unloaded

Stringing/trenching equipment is specialized heavy equipment with heavy gauge cables.  While those themselves might be tempting – and certainly better than nothing – cables and hydraulic hoses are relatively easy parts to replace on equipment. This is a moment where equipment may be on site for long periods of time. Consider an intrusive but non-obvious approach to sabotage like corrosive fluids (and not sand) in the oil or fuel tanks – on equipment or even large refuelling tanks. The key here is to make it look as though you were never there. With luck, you’ll be long gone before that equipment becomes a useless pile of steel.

Additionally – the pipes are vulnerable too. Seam threads and pipe lengths can be damages with drills, grinders and torches with varying degrees of noise.

 

Welding: Joining each segment of pipe together

Missing welding equipment or damaged pipes are enough to ruin a day or two’s progress.

 

Trench and lowering: Heavy equipment is brought in to dig the pipeline trench, as well as raise and lower the welded pipe into the trench.

The project is almost done at this point. It’s now or never.

 

Backfilling: Filling trenches and replacing the topsoil.

Now or never.