Patriot Project

The Patriot pipeline extension provided many areas of southwest Virginia access to natural gas for the first time.

The $289-million Patriot project was designed to expand the East Tennessee Natural Gas Company (ETNG) system in Tennessee and Virginia, and extend the system into southwest Virginia and northern North Carolina via the proposed 94-mile Patriot Extension pipeline. The pipeline extension provided many areas of southwest Virginia access to natural gas for the first time.

The expansion includes some 85 miles of 20- and 24-inch diameter looping, about 25 miles of 24-inch relays, and 64,040 horsepower of compression added through five new and six existing stations in Tennessee and Virginia. With ultimate capacity of 310 million cubic feet a day, the Patriot project is necessary to meet the increased demands for gas and electric power in the Southeastern United States.

During the environmental permitting process of the project, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries requested the development of a stream classification system and watershed analysis to evaluate potential impacts to fishery resources from the proposed pipeline project. PBS&J developed a geographic information system (GIS) database of the stream classifications, incorporating drainage engineer delineated watersheds. Analysis of the data showed that the individual stream crossings would not lead to a cumulative impact to fishery resources, resulting in ETNG being granted an exemption to the standard time-of-year construction restrictions from the State of Virginia – a first in Virginia.