Enbridge gets favorable Line 5 tunnel ruling

Enbridge Inc. has received a favorable ruling from the Michigan Court of Appeals regarding a utility tunnel under the Mackinac Straits that would surround a rebuilt section of the company’s 540,000-b/d Line 5 liquids pipeline. The court upheld a state Court of Claims ruling from October 2019 that a law allowing construction was not unconstitutional.

At issue was whether the title of a 2018 law creating the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority accurately portrayed the legislation’s contents. The state is expected to ask the Michigan Supreme Court to review the appeals court’s ruling.

Enbridge expects to complete tunnel construction in 2024.

The Michigan court’s decision follows a ruling last week by the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that Enbridge’s Line 5 emergency response plan was adequate to protect fish and wildlife in the Straits of Mackinac. The National Wildlife Federation had sued claiming otherwise.

Two other Line 5 cases—one involving the pipe’s 1953 easement and another challenging Enbridge’s permits for the line’s anchor supports—are still working their way through Michigan’s judicial system.

Line 5 is a 645-mile, 30-in. OD pipeline crossing the Upper and Lower Peninsula’s of Michigan and the straits that separate them as it moves light crude oil, synthetic crude, and NGL from Superior, Wisc., to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The line splits into two 20-in. OD pipes for the 4.5-mile crossing between the peninsulas.

Enbridge has proposed replacing Line 5’s straits crossing with a pipeline secured in a larger tunnel, bored beneath the lakebed. Line 5 entered service in 1953.