The bitter cold of winter has temporarily halted construction on the Keystone oil pipeline though Nebraska, but there is still activity along the route. Keystone spokesman Jeff Rauh says crews are working on preparations before construction can resume in the spring.
Pipes are being moved out of storage and put in place to prepare for being put in place this spring and summer, while they’re also cutting down some trees now, during the winter, so nest-building birds won’t be displaced come springtime.
Rauh says construction will resume in a few months and will begin in a number of sites along the pipeline. Crews will be in several counties, including central Nebraska, South Dakota and along the Kansas/Missouri line and in two other spots in central and eastern Missouri.
The pipeline will enter Nebraska in Cedar County and exit through Thayer County. Rauh says they are still on schedule to deliver crude oil. He says by this time next summer, they should be delivering crude through the pipeline, with construction wrapping up this fall.
The Keystone pipeline will transport crude oil from tar sands in Canada to refineries in Kansas, Oklahoma and Illinois, while passing through the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.
Thanks to Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton