Canada-based pipeline giant Enbridge announced on Tuesday that it has hired two industry-leading tunneling companies to lead construction of its future Great Lakes Tunnel it wants to build through the Straits of Mackinac.
Enbridge received a Michigan Public Service Commission permit earlier this year to build a tunnel that will be used to encapsulate the eventual replacement of Line 5. The existing Line 5 is a pipeline that has existed between Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas since the late 1950s without a tunnel protecting it.
The two companies Enbridge hired are Barnard Construction Company, Inc. and Civil and Building North America, Inc.
Barnard has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican politicians over the years, including former President Donald J. Trump, and has received more than $1 billion in federal contracts to build sections of the wall under construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a 2020 article by published by Business Insider with some information from the Daily Beast.
The same article alleged that the Trump administration paid a company affiliated with Barnard well above the market rate, $33 million a mile instead of the customary $20 million per mile of wall, as part of a contract worth more than a half-billion dollars.
Barnard is based in Bozeman, Mont. CBNA is based in Miami.
Both will work with Enbridge to build the tunnel for the State of Michigan, the company said.
The Great Lakes Tunnel is being designed as a utility corridor to connect Michigan’s peninsulas. The tunnel will house the Line 5 pipeline as it crosses under the lakebed at the Straits to protect the Great Lakes and the environment and to ensure vital energy resources are delivered safely and reliably to the region, according to Enbridge’s statement.
“This agreement with Barnard and CBNA marks a milestone for this historic project. The selection of these two world-class companies reinforces our commitment to safely building the Great Lakes Tunnel,” Tom Schwartz, an Enbridge senior vice president, said.
The Great Lakes Tunnel, being solely financed by Enbridge, will be owned and operated by the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority once completed.
Barnard and CBNA will each retain a 50 percent partnership under the name Mackinac Straits Partners.
Combined, the two companies have built more than 100 tunnels in 15 countries equaling more than 372 miles of tunnel, including projects with similar geologic conditions to those in the Straits of Mackinac, Enbridge said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to make decisions on its permits by early 2026.
“While Enbridge appears to be moving forward on a mega fossil fuel infrastructure project that will likely cost more than $2 billion, it also acknowledges in its [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] filings that climate concerns leading to the tunnel's obsolescence require a truncated depreciation schedule for its fossil fuel assets,” said Liz Kirkwood, executive director for one of the project’s fiercest opponents, Traverse City-based For Love of Water, or FLOW.
One of the project’s biggest supporters is the PBF refinery based in East Toledo.
“We are excited that Enbridge has reached this critical milestone,” refinery officials said in a prepared statement. “This is an important step towards them making a significant investment in vital, international energy infrastructure that will allow for the continuing safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible operation of Line 5 for many years to come.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, another proponent, had no immediate comment, his communications director, Dan Tierney, said.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz did not respond to a request for comment.
FLOW has challenged the Michigan Public Service Commission permit in the Michigan Court of Appeals. The appeal was filed by it and other environmental groups in mid-April.
Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy has said the pipeline company is “reimagining infrastructure and energy delivery to Michigan and the region” through the project.
First Published April 30, 2024, 9:59 p.m.
