Enbridge oil pipeline project in Ind. delayed

GRIFFITH, Ind. — Enbridge Energy says the company’s project to replace 60 miles of oil pipeline across northern Indiana won’t be completed until at least February due to delays in obtaining needed permits.

Work on the pipeline that will run through Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties had been expected to be completed by the end of the year. But project manager Tom Hodge tells The Times of Munster the $1.5 billion project won’t be finished until at least February because of delays in obtaining all the needed permits.

An estimated 650 workers have been drilling tunnels beneath roadways, marshland, stores and a Merrillville golf course and burying new sections of steel pipeline to replace a 45-year-old pipeline between the Indiana-Michigan state line and Enbridge’s oil terminal in Griffith, Ind.