Trans Mountain announces that construction of its pipeline expansion project will be suspended until early January for safety reasons.
Officials from the company and Canada’s Energy Regulatory Agency said Wednesday that a contractor was seriously injured at the Burnaby, BC site the day before
In a statement Thursday, Trans Mountain said the company will be introducing a voluntary, project-wide safety freeze from Friday through Jan. 4.
Construction work at the Burnaby site had already ceased on Wednesday after the injury.
The company says its priorities remain employee safety and maintaining a safe work environment.
Ian Anderson, President and CEO of Trans Mountain, says there have been security incidents in the past two months that are unacceptable to the company.
“This goes against the proud safety culture of Trans Mountain,” he said in the press release.
“Trans Mountain is proactively taking the step to temporarily halt construction on the expansion project to review, roll back and realign our efforts, as well as those of our contractors and their employees.”
The company said the project teams worked successfully in multiple construction areas in British Columbia and Alberta in 2020 and completed around 20 percent of the project.
“Next year, 2021, the project will be built at peak time. Thousands of people are working in hundreds of locations in Alberta and British Columbia,” the press release said. “During this time, occupational safety is one of the greatest risks for the project.”
The Canadian press
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