Pipeline Construction Helps Strengthen Natural Gas Reliability and Access

Enbridge Gas North Carolina, a natural gas utility that services 650,000 homes, is constructing a pipeline to expand natural gas service and improve reliability in the growing areas northeast of Charlotte, North Carolina. Our multidisciplinary team of experts on the Kannapolis to Concord Pipeline project includes:

• Environmental services
• Geotechnical engineering
• Land surveying
• Land acquisition
• Data management
• Non-environmental permitting

The 24-mile pipeline route crosses more than 460 parcels of public, private and government land, including an interstate and railroad crossing, and requires extensive landowner engagement and permitting. 

Early in the project, our right-of-way team worked closely with these stakeholders and created property information forms to inform the design teams about concerns, helping lessen construction and operation impacts for landowners while keeping the project timeline on track. We paired with an environmental consultant to perform environmental assessments before construction to inform the permitting process and used web GIS connectivity with their system to reduce time loss in file transfers. 

ArcGIS for AutoCAD Improves Project Workflow

More than 40 team members require access to project data, necessitating software that keeps everyone on the same page and data in one place. Our team leveraged ArcGIS for AutoCAD, a plug-in application for Autodesk’s AutoCAD, to reconcile design changes and incorporate field conditions with a central hub for project information. 

Typically, on complex cross-discipline projects, data from various teams is exported and ultimately uploaded into the ArcGIS web viewer to display files to the wider project team and client. ArcGIS for AutoCAD is a one-stop-shop software solution that streamlines this process. Design changes can now be synchronised with one click. This simplifies workflow and provides an easy way to display working files for our team, the client and subcontractors, and improves coordination, accuracy and communication. 

Users can interact with the data and toggle layers — like land acquisition status, surveying information, pipeline route, construction progress and more — to view necessary details. Team members in the field have access to the tool on mobile devices as well, helping them accomplish their work efficiently.

Our team’s innovation using ArcGIS for this project earned an Integration Award from the software’s creator Esri, a leader in GIS software, location intelligence and mapping.