Hutchinson Utilities Commission Nearing Construction on a New Natural Gas Pipeline

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Hutchinson Utilities Commission (Hutchinson, Minnesota) is nearing construction on a new 89-mile natural gas pipeline. The new $26 million pipeline will originate at a pipeline interconnection point with Northern Border Pipeline near Trimont, Minnesota, and will terminate just north of Hutchinson, Minnesota. The pipeline will be 16" in diameter for 34-miles from Trimont to New Ulm, and 12" in diameter from New Ulm to Hutchinson with a burial depth of 54".

Hutchinson Utilities awarded the construction contract to Jomax Construction Company, Incorporated (Great Bend, Kansas) and expects to begin site preparation on May 1, 2003. Completion is scheduled for late summer of 2003. Upon completion, the pipeline will supply 60,000 mmbtu's, and is expected to satisfy the cities' expected growth for the next 60-80 years.

In the electric generation sector, Hutchinson Utilities is studying the economic possibility of constructing a new 50-megawatt power plant utilizing a single GE Power Systems MS6001B combustion turbine with a generator in a simple-cycle configuration. Construction on the power plant could begin as early as 2005 with a 2006 in-service date.