Building Trades News

Phase 1 of the $75 Million Project Promises Jobs for Local Crafts 

By Beige Luciano-Adams
Contributing Writer

Having secured approval from the Los Angeles Transportation Commission, developer WesPac Energy is bringing its proposal – for the first phase of a 23-mile pipeline that will transport jet fuel from the Los Angeles Harbor Area to LAX – to the Los Angeles City Council in May.

The Los Angeles Transportation Commission voted in April to approve a 6.5-mile installation of underground pipeline that stretches from the Wilmington storage tanks at the Harbor to the Kinder Morgan Watson Pump Station at Alameda and Sepulveda in Carson.

“We’re confident that the project will go through,” said Richard Slawson, Executive Secretary of the LA/OC Building Trades Council, while Rick Taylor, WesPac spokesman, said he is “Extremely excited about [the prospect] of having both the Transportation Committee and City Council voting unanimously on the project,” which he claims will create jobs and help improve infrastructure at no cost to local residents.
At an estimated total value of $75 million, the project should provide jobs for around 100 local crafts members, Slawson said, with “quite a few different crafts” involved.

“The pipeline itself involves the Pipe trades, Operating Engineers, Laborers and Teamsters, but at the pump station and for other equipment there will be electrical systems and street work that can include Electricians, Cement Masons and Rebar Ironworkers,” he said.

Taylor noted that the Building Trades, and Locals 250 and 802 in particular, have been instrumental in moving the project forward.

“This project would not have been as successful without the unbelievable support and backing from the local Building Trades, who have shown up and spoken eloquently about the need for bringing good-paying union jobs to Los Angeles,” Taylor said.

“We got involved because it starts here in our backyard,” said Deborah Baker, Business Manager for Laborers Local 802, whose members have attended planning meetings and hearings for the project over the last several years. “We’ve got our people behind the cause because we want to see good jobs come out of this,” said Baker, adding, “We felt it was a better way to go, the safest route; we think it will be best for the communities once it’s in the ground.”

It is precisely this angle – of the relative safety of underground energy transport systems – that developers hope to capitalize on as they move forward, with the steel pipeline emerging as an attractive, modern alternative to four existing jet-fuel pipelines that service LAX, among them Chevron and BP Arco. The idea is to land business with the consortium of 61 airlines that fly out of LAX. A positive side effect, claim developers, will be lower fuel costs as a result of increased competition.

According to WesPac, this first phase will connect fuel storage tanks with pipelines to airports in Ontario, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego and Orange County.

Approval for the project lies mostly with the city of Los Angeles, as most of the 23-mile pipeline would run under its streets. If approved in May, the City Council will also approve the EIR for the whole project. Assuming all goes ahead as planned, construction on the first phase would commence “sometime this year,” said Taylor.

Most of the initial construction will take place in Carson, where city leaders have expressed support for the project.

“We [still] have to go to Carson and get a franchise agreement there, but we’ve had a good working relationship with the City of Carson and we’re hoping it will go as smoothly as it has with the City of L.A.,” he said.

However, there has been some opposition from local residents in Gardena, where the second phase of the pipeline is set to run through. Wespac will need permission from Gardena, Hawthorne and Compton in order to build the last 18 miles that will bring the pipeline to LAX.

While some residents have raised concerns about the consequences of a possible rupture, the biggest concern over environmental impact is centered around construction. Gardena officials have opposed the project since its announcement in 2007, claiming that it would interfere with other projects planned for under Rosecrans Avenue (e.g., buried utility lines). A back-and-forth has ensued between city official and developers over the question of whether or not there is space.

However, Gardena city officials have also said that they don’t necessarily oppose it, but have been reluctant to endorse it, citing no direct benefit to the city. Alternative routes have been suggested (e.g., along El Segundo, which would bypass Gardena) and will likely be debated before any conclusion is reached. Thus it is unclear when the second phase will begin, but developers estimate that the build-out will take about a year from when it does.

This second phase, says Slawson, “has to go through its own process, and part of that will be satisfying the needs of cities along the route, including Gardena, where there has been much input on route design – and we’re sure some satisfactory conclusion will come out of those discussions.”

As for the upcoming Los Angeles City Council meeting, neither developers nor the Building Trades Council expect any opposition.

“Even though the city of Gardena has concerns,” says Slawson, “they’ve had sufficient opportunities at the Transportation Commission and Committee meetings, so I doubt they will open it up at the City Council meeting – although, we’ll be there in the event it happens.”