City, state seek alternative to running gas pipeline through east Fort Worth neighborhood

By MIKE LEE

mikelee@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH — The Texas Department of Transportation and local government officials held out hope Friday that a controversial natural gas pipeline might be moved out of an east Fort Worth neighborhood.

Drilling company Chesapeake Energy needs a 16-inch gathering pipeline to connect two well sites on Interstate 30, just east of downtown.

Chesapeake told city officials and neighborhood residents last week that the department won’t allow the pipeline to run parallel to the highway because of safety concerns. Chesapeake also said the pipeline couldn’t run north of I-30 because it would interfere with the Trinity River Vision redevelopment project.

The company’s representatives said the best alternative would be to run the pipeline beneath the front yards of homes on Carter Avenue. Chesapeake has already acquired the right of way along Carter Avenue, including filing condemnation suits against several landowners.

The Carter Avenue pipeline attracted national attention because it spotlighted the conflict between some homeowners and gas-gathering pipelines in the Barnett Shale field. Pipeline companies can condemn private land for pipelines, and cities have little control over the routes. Chesapeake announced last week that it wanted the City Council to approve a street crossing for the route in November and that construction would begin in December.

Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks and other local politicians spent part of this week working with the Transportation Department and the Trinity River Vision Authority to find a route.

"We’re going to continue to be very aggressive in finding alternatives," Hicks said. "I feel cautiously optimistic that we can work together with these other entities."

A Chesapeake spokesman e-mailed a statement, saying, "Chesapeake is glad to see all parties exploring our route analysis in exhaustive detail. We look forward to continuing these conversations over the next few weeks."

Maribel Chavez, Transportation Department district engineer, said Friday that the pipeline could run parallel to the freeway if Chesapeake met certain safety criteria.

"I never told them, 'No, you cannot be in the public right of way,’ " Chavez said.

The issue is that Chesapeake has to find a way to build and maintain the pipeline without interfering with traffic on I-30. There are no freeway access roads near Beach Street, and Transportation Department officials had previously suggested that Chesapeake pay for new access roads if it wants to build a pipeline.

But Chavez said Friday that the company could find other ways to get at a pipeline, including accessing it from nearby property. Typically, the state cuts off access, such as back gates, to people who own land next to a freeway. Chavez said that rule can be waived.

"I don’t care if they go out and just grade some kind of a trail to get to it," she said. "We’re not going to tell them how, other than you can’t do it off the main lanes" of the freeway.

Likewise, Chavez said, the department hasn’t ruled out allowing the pipeline to run beneath the bridge at Beach Street and I-30. Chavez said she invited Chesapeake officials to examine the plans for the bridge and the freeway to look for a route.

"I’ve got pipelines threaded all through bridges in my district," she said.

J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, said his staff is working on an alternative route that would run north of the freeway near the river.

The area is already laced with pipelines, and some will have to be moved to make way for flood storage or recreational features, Granger said. But he said that doesn’t rule out a route for Chesapeake’s gathering line.

"You’ve got pipelines, you’ve got utilities through there, you’ve got those huge electric lines through there," he said. "There’s always a smart alternative."

It’s not clear whether Chesapeake will agree to reconsider the route.

Company representatives said last week that other routes have technical problems, such as topography and a lack of construction space, that make it infeasible to build the pipeline parallel to the highway or the Trinity River Vision property.

MIKE LEE, 817-390-7539

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