Source: Cardinal News

Excerpt:

The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s lead developer said Tuesday it anticipates the natural gas project will have a final price tag of approximately $7.85 billion.

That figure is around $220 million more than the upper end of the range of $7.57 billion to $7.63 billion that the company announced in February.

Equitrans Midstream, the lead developer of the pipeline joint venture, said factors contributing to the new cost estimate include a slower-than-expected pace of construction recently, which has resulted in additional labor and equipment costs, and expenses related to restoring land after construction.

“Project costs were affected by challenging physical construction conditions, certain equipment and other issues during now-completed boring operations, unexpected challenges with certain pipeline cleaning procedures, and inclement weather,” the company said in a news release Tuesday in which it reported a first-quarter profit of $111.9 million.

Read more: Mountain Valley Pipeline final cost revised up to $7.85 billion