Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 42

Did You Know?
Materials required for the construction of the Northern
Ontario Pipeline included 223,800 tons of line pipe,
229,700 tons of concrete weights, 6,890,000 square
yards of rock shield, 53 tons of kraft paper, and 42,700
gallons of primer.
Project: The Northern
Ontario Pipeline
By 1956, all of the elements needed to build a pipeline
to export Alberta natural gas to eastern Canadian
markets were in place—except the money. Natural gas
transmission company Trans-Canada Pipelines Limited
(TCPL) had raised only 70 per cent of the $375 million
that was required to start construction. DCL founder
C.D. Howe believed that creating a Crown corporation to
build the stretch of pipeline north of Lake Superior and
then lease it to TCPL until TCPL could purchase it
outright was the fastest, most effective way of getting
the pipeline built.
With the pipeline considered a crucial supply line
from the west to the east—and government debate
threatening the loss of a year’s construction—the
Liberal government invoked closure in order to obtain
Parliamentary approval by early June 1956 for the
$118 million that would fund Howe’s Crown corporation.
The resulting entity, the Northern Ontario Pipeline Crown
Corporation (NOPL), was established immediately, but,
despite the eventual success of the pipeline, the debate
tarnished both Howe and the Liberals, and contributed
to their defeat in the following year’s election.
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NOPL and DCL signed two agreements: the first, on
June 7, 1956, was for the provision of administrative
and supervisory personnel, reviewing the estimates
provided by TCPL and reporting on the construction’s
progress. The second, on December 27, 1956, was for
construction and engineering services and administra-
tive assistance. DCL would provide engineering liaison
with TCPL, and would call tenders and provide general
field supervision and progress and cost reports. In turn,
DCL was paid the salaries of staff involved in the work
plus 50 per cent to cover overhead costs.
Joe Bland was the project engineer for most of the
construction. “It was a real opportunity to work with an
excellent firm… (which) had wonderful personnel from the
president down. I learned a lot from them. Guy Coates was
president and I always marvelled at how he always knew
everyone in the company right down to the office boy.”
By October 1958, the pipeline was complete. Along
the way, DCL and its contractors had to overcome a
number of challenges posed by terrain that consisted
largely of rock and muskeg. In muskeg, the pipe had
to be held in place by concrete weights of three to five
tons each—55,000 weights in all, placed every 11 or
24 feet for 150 miles. And some 250 miles of the
section were built through rock, which required shielding
BREAKING NEW GROUN D
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA