The West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline

The West Roxbury Lateral (WRL) pipeline is a branch of a larger project called Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) that is being built by Spectra Energy of Houston Texas and their subsidiary Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC of Waltham.

The route of the Spectra gas transmission WRL is about 5.1 miles ling. It begins in Westwood at the Norfolk Golf Club near the East St. ramp on Rt.128. It crosses Rt. 128 into Dedham and continues on Elm St., Providence Hwy. (Rt. 1), East St. and Washington St. In Dedham the pipeline crosses under Mother Brook and under Gonzalez soccer field.

The West Roxbury portion of the pipeline continues north on Washington St. It will turn left on Grove St and continue to the corner across from West Roxbury Crushed Stone, an actively blasting quarry. The metering and regulating station will be built on the corner across from the entrance to the quarry. This is where the extreme gas pressure of 750 pounds per square inch (psi.) in the pipeline will be stepped down through a system of pipes and valves (all above ground) to the pressure that National Grid uses in its distribution pipelines, in the range of 22 to 60 psi. From the M & R station, Spectra will pipe the gas at this lower pressure along Centre St. to Spring St., West Roxbury. There it will feed into National Grid’s city loop.