Our Region’s Future Pipeline System

Future Pipeline Overview

Pipelines serve a critical role in transporting millions of tons of liquid and gas commodities from natural gas to power our homes, offices and factories to basic chemicals used in the manufacturing of cleaning products and agricultural fertilizers.

As our region and nation transition to cleaner, more environmentally sustainable resources, our reliance on pipelines to safely, efficiently and economically transport goods is expected to increase. Future volume forecasts and existing capacity may require the introduction of larger diameter replacement pipeline and/or the extension of pipeline to meet demand and support the mode’s economic competitiveness.

The Value of Future Pipeline Technologies

As we look to the challenges for the future of pipeline freight, there are a growing number of technological advances — under varying degrees of implementation or examination today — that will greatly assist in meeting regional goals. A brief overview of those pipeline-oriented technologies showing the greatest potential benefits to pipeline freight safety, infrastructure maintenance, mobility and reliability, environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness is discussed in this freight plan. As shown in the table, each new technology has value in addressing all five goals simultaneously.