Vermont Gas Systems says its 41-mile pipeline under construction between Colchester and Middlebury is on budget and on track to be completed by late 2016.
The company filed its quarterly cost update with the utility-regulating Public Service Board on Friday. Vermont Gas has spent $66.5 million of its $153.6 million cost estimate announced in December 2014, according to the update.
Vermont Gas says it has signed right-of-way agreements with 93 percent of landowners, executed contracts for construction and inspection and made “significant progress” on three measurement and regulation stations along the pipeline route.
Vermont Gas wrote that the $153.6 million price estimate “assumes that the project will be completed by late 2016.” None of the budget’s contingency fund, which actuaries calculate to absorb foreseeable risks in construction projects, has been used, the reports says.
Six miles of the pipeline had been completed by April, according to the previous cost update, and Vermont Gas says 11 miles should be finished by fall. The company also expects “some level of eminent domain filings” against landowners with whom no agreement can be reached.
“I absolutely think that our stakeholders, the public, should be confident that we have done a reliable job in both resetting the budget and resetting the schedule, and that we’re working effectively to achieve our milestones,” said Don Rendall, president and chief executive officer of Vermont Gas.
“I think it’s really important to remember that we are aiming to finish this project by the end of 2016,” Rendall said. “We are on track to finish the project by the end of 2016, and we’re really looking forward to achieving that goal.”
Chris Recchia, commissioner of the Public Service Department, reiterated last week that delaying the project could increase the cost. The department, which advocates for ratepayers in front of the Public Service Board, supports the project.
Parties in the case are still waiting to find out whether the Public Service Board will reopen the project’s certificate of public good, which is essentially a state utility permit.
