In many areas of the Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) and northeastern B.C., the forest industry shares operating areas and resource roads with oil, gas, and pipeline companies. Many Alberta forest operations report that their resource road construction operations build hundreds of pipeline crossings per year and deal with up to 50 different pipeline owners. Written permission is required to cross various buried utilities. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers Agreement for Facility Crossings (CAPP 2001) often forms part of facility crossing agreements. These formal documents contain the legal requirements of both parties named in the agreements, and include the agreement itself, the location and plan profile, and specific and mutually agreed-to terms and conditions. Some of the clauses are specific to the construction of pipeline crossings, such as 72-hour notification before work starts, inspection of works, limits and distances from pipeline for construction-related activities, cover depth above pipeline, and other overarching requirements. Ground disturbance training, for both safe work procedures and an understanding of the relevant acts and regulations, provides a level of competency for those involved with pipeline crossings and is a requirement for work in Alberta.
Forest operations report that the approval process for these crossings can be costly, time-consuming, and frustrating because the crossing design requirements vary according to the pipeline owner and/or the arbitrary judgement of the site inspector from the pipeline company (many of these requirements are related to what has been done in the past). Over time, the concerns and constraints related to pipeline crossings have grown. The objective of this project is to develop a set of generic, cost-effective, and accepted pipeline crossing designs for both permanent and temporary resource roads.