Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project

The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project is a proposed 900 km natural gas pipeline across northern British Columbia, beginning near Hudson’s Hope in the east and terminating near Prince Rupert on the west coast. Related infrastructure includes new roadways and upgrades, compressor and valve stations, aerial (bridge) crossings, and directionally drilled watercourse crossings.

BGC has been involved in many aspects of the project since early 2013. We have carried out terrain stability mapping covering approximately 1500 km of proposed main and alternative pipeline alignments.  We have also provided assessments of terrestrial and nearshore geohazards, seismic and liquefaction hazards, metal leaching and acid rock drainage risk, and snow avalanche hazards. Other assessments have included mapping of shallow bedrock, erosion control, muskeg delineation for buoyancy control, and aerial crossings for pipe support foundation design and geohazard mitigation. Additional BGC work has included hydrotechnical hazard characterization and design for over 1000 trenched water crossings.

Geotechnical investigations completed by BGC for the project have included drilling and geophysical investigations to characterize and assess design feasibility for:

• Twelve major water course crossings
• Six geohazard and liquefaction targets
• Foundation conditions for three proposed compressor station locations, a proposed meter station and a proposed road bridge crossing

BGC also conducted offshore and nearshore marine drilling programs from floating and jack-up barge platforms to support detailed engineering design. BGC acted as the Prime Contractor for this project, retaining local land clearing, drilling, geophysics, medical, and First Nations subcontractors to support the site investigation work.