August 2017, Vol. 244, No. 8

Features

Dakota Access Pipeline: Industry Retrospective on Lessons Learned

It is more than a little ironic that no one wants to discuss the most talked about U.S. pipeline project in the past two years despite the fact that it is now successfully built and operating. The $3.78 billion, nearly 1,200-mile Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) sparked both controversy and pride in 2016, depending on the respective opposing positions on the mammoth venture, but in mid-2017 industry observers were circumspect about articulating what was learned from the unquestionably large engineering and political accomplishment that DAPL represents. The consensus is that it will be much more difficult, if not nearly impossible, to build future major pipeline projects because of the lines i