TxDot comes around on East Side pipeline; Carter Avenue route possibly averted

The Texas Department of Transportation has offered preliminary approval to allow a natural gas gathering pipeline to be bored along Interstate 30, allowing the abandonment of a the planned route along Carter Avenue, on the city’s east side.

A Chesapeake Energy Corp. subsidiary, Texas Midstream Gas Services, planned to run a pipeline through residential properties along Carter Avenue, has condemned some homes to make room and negotiated with other property owners. The company argues that the Carter Avenue route is the easiest path. Area residents are concerned about safety and health.

But TxDOT’s potential agreement to allow the pipeline along state right-of-way eliminates the need for the controversial Carter Avenue route. Details still are being worked out.

State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, proposed a measure in the most recent Legislature that would have allowed the pipeline to be run through TxDOT rights-of-way; the bill passed the House and Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry.

“We fought hard in the last legislative session to give the industry pipeline routing options that will help them avoid negatively impacting the neighborhoods that make Tarrant County such a great place to live,” Davis said in a Nov. 25 statement. “I’m hopeful that the eventual rerouting of the Carter Avenue pipeline will set a precedent for continued cooperation between the citizens of Tarrant County, local and state agencies, and the natural gas drilling industry.”

Pipelines are an essential part of natural gas production, and are used to transport the produced natural gas from a well site to the market via gathering lines and transmission lines, the former of which currently are being installed around Fort Worth.

Each well drilled will require pipeline access.