Dominion Cove Point’s offloading pier in Solomons
Lusby, MD – The real grunt work involved with building a multi-billion dollar liquefaction unit at a Lusby gas plant is about to begin. During the Calvert County Commissioners’ Tuesday, May 12 meeting an emergency management specialist gave the board and the public details about the “heavy haul plan” for the Dominion Cove Point expansion project.
Under the watchful eyes of state and county authorities the deliveries of construction components, which will be arriving in Calvert County by way of barge, will be off-loaded at Dominion’s temporary pier in Solomons, and slowly trucked to the plant on Cove Point Road.
“The hauls are scheduled Sunday evening through Thursday evening, between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.,” stated Alfred Jeffery of the county government’s Division of Emergency Management. “There will be no hauls on Friday or Saturday nights. The haul schedule has taken into account special events scheduled in the area to avoid impacting these events.”
Jeffery explained that project contractors are estimating approximately 80 hauls will take place over a 12- to 16-month period. A single haul could take between 90 minutes to two hours to complete. “It depends on the piece,” Jeffery said. The Maryland State Police (MSP), with the assistance of the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office, will be escorting the hauling vehicles.
“In order to ensure hauls do not interfere with any emergency responses in the area, a liaison from Calvert County Public Safety will assist with monitoring dispatch channels and the live Computer Aided Dispatch [CAD] screen remotely,” Jeffery stated in a memo to the commissioners. “When, or if, an emergency call is dispatched during the hauls, the liaison will notify the Calvert Control Center of the haul location and notify responding units, so alternate response routes can be used to avoid the haul.”
The hauling operations plan was developed by IHI/Kiewit, the project contractor. Jeffery reported the company Lockwood Brothers was providing the hauling vehicles and drivers. The company is based in Hampton, VA and has specialized in the transport of heavy equipment for nearly 70 years.
Dominion, IHI-Kiewit and the Calvert County Department of Economic Development have coordinated a public outreach plan to ensure residents are aware when the hauling operations are imminent and underway. Jeffery said the first haul is planned for Tuesday, May 19. Subsequent hauls are planned for May 20, 27 and 28. The operations will take place even if it rains.
“These are not going to be kept in secret, this is very transparent,” said Jeffery.
Once the hauling vehicle leaves the temporary pier in Solomons, it will traverse northward with three “transition points” planned. The points call for the hauling vehicle to switch lanes, beginning in the southbound lanes of Route 2/4 at Patuxent Point Parkway, switching to northbound Route 2/4 at Southern Connector Boulevard and back to the southbound side at Rousby Hall Road.
Prior to Jeffery’s presentation, the meeting’s public comment segment was held. The lone speaker, Calvert Citizens for a Healthy Community’s Tracey Eno, an ardent opponent of the Dominion Cove Point project, voiced objections to the inconvenience and safety risks the hauling operations were going to create.
Surmising that the stoppage of traffic during the hauls would prevent residents from leaving their homes, Eno declared “we are going to be under house arrest for eight hours a day.”
Commissioner Tom Hejl [R – At large] noted that with so many responders scheduled to be stationed in the Cove Point Road area during the hauling operations, the neighborhood’s medical emergency plan “is much more effective” than normal and “people are better off” during that period.
“I’m very comfortable with the haul plan and the traffic plans,” said Commissioner Evan K. Slaughenhoupt Jr. [R – District 3].
The construction project at Dominion Cove Point is expected to take three years to complete. The liquefaction unit will enable the company to export liquefied natural gas to foreign countries via tankers, which will receive the gas at the plant’s offshore pier. The estimated cost of the liquefaction unit is $3.8 billion.
Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com