Security for Pipeline Construction Projects

A linear site needs a fixed post and a moving one

A pipeline project has two places that need watching and they behave differently. The pipe yard is a fenced lot on a highway that fills up before the spread starts and empties as the joints go out; it can be covered by a fixed post at the gate. The right-of-way is a strip that advances every day, crossed by public roads, with the contractor’s equipment parked wherever the shift ended. It can only be covered by a vehicle that drives it. Price Protection staffs both, under one set of post orders written with the spread superintendent, and rewrites the patrol route as the work moves.

The post orders for a spread carry things a building site never needs: the station numbers for the week’s work, the access road map, which landowner gates must be chained and which must be left as found, where livestock is, which crossings the sheriff patrols and which they do not, and who at the operator gets the call when someone is on the easement. They change at the weekly look-ahead, and the officer working the patrol reads the new version before each shift.

The right-of-way at night

After the crews leave, the line is a row of machines parked on skids and mats with fuel in their tanks, welding leads coiled on the rigs, and pipe strung along the trench. The thefts are practical: diesel siphoned, batteries pulled, leads and tools taken from cabs that were not locked. The patrol stops at every machine, checks caps and doors, and notes the ones left open so the foreman hears about it in the morning. Open trench, exposed pipe and the drill site are logged too, because the inspector’s first question after any incident is what condition the line was in and when it was last seen.

Gates, livestock and the people who own the land

The contractor’s welcome on a tract depends on gates. A gate left open lets cattle onto a county road, and the landowner who finds them there calls the operator, not the contractor. The officer closes and chains every gate behind the truck on every pass, records its condition, and calls the landowner liaison the same night if a gate or a fence is damaged. That call, made before the landowner makes theirs, is often the most valuable thing the post does all week.

People on the right-of-way after hours are handled by the post orders and by talking. Most are neighbors. Some are there to take something, and a few are there to object to the project. The officer’s job with all of them is the same: identify, explain that the easement is closed, ask them to leave, record it, and call the sheriff or police for anything more. How officers handle trespassers is covered in detail on its own page.

Working with the spread superintendent and the inspector

The superintendent gets the report before the morning safety meeting, with the yard log, the patrol stops and anything found open. The inspector reads the same report for the condition of the line and the coating stock. A drill site running overnight gets its own section, with the crew on site and the hours. Where the operator has a public affairs contact, the officer’s notes on people encountered go to them as the post orders direct, in the officer’s words, the same day.

Where we work and how to start

We are headquartered in Sugar Land and serve clients across Texas, including the refinery and terminal corridors east of downtown along the ship channel, where replacement and lateral work runs through industrial land, and the rural counties around the city where new lines cross farmland. To start a post, dispatch needs the yard location, the spread’s start point and direction, the superintendent’s pickup list and the hours wanted; the access road map and station numbers follow when the spread begins. Unarmed coverage at a yard can typically begin within hours of the call.