By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published: June 15, 2016 – 07:13 PM
Construction companies based in Mississippi, Georgia and Wisconsin have been awarded contracts by Texas-based Nexus Gas Transmission LLC to build a $2 billion natural gas pipeline across northern Ohio.
Mississippi-based M.G. Dyess Inc. was awarded a contract to build one Ohio section of pipeline, and Georgia-based Latex Construction Inc. was also awarded a section of the pipeline in Ohio, said spokesman Adam Parker in an email.
Wisconsin-based Michels Corp. was awarded two contracts for work in Ohio and Michigan, he said.
A dollar figure for the four contracts was not released by Parker.
He did say that union workers will install 79 percent of the pipeline’s mileage.
That surpasses the company’s goal from early 2015 of having 50 percent of the construction done by union workers, he said.
Michels and Latex employ union workers, but Dyess does not.
The four contracts were awarded in February.
The pipeline would run through parts of Summit, Stark, Wayne and Medina counties.
The pipeline from eastern Ohio to Detroit and Ontario must still be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The city of Green and a grass-roots group, the Coalition to Reroute Nexus, want to move the pipeline to southern Stark and Wayne counties and away from the developed Akron-Canton area. The company is against that proposal.
If approved, the pipeline could begin service in late 2017.
Partners in the pipeline are Michigan-based DTE Energy and Texas-based Spectra Energy Corp.
Contracts for construction of compressor stations including one in Medina County will be awarded later.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.