2019年4月，公用事业北岸的天然气获得了当地市政当局的批准，以朝着其Grayslake Gate Interconnect站最雄心勃勃的升级前进。该车站处理大部分天然气，该天然气加热并为公用事业公司的伊利诺伊州东北服务区域提供动力，并将北岸天然气系统与供应商Kinder Morgan连接起来。

Four years of planning went into the $27-million project that had to be built and commissioned between late April and October 2020 before demand for natural gas rose as the weather got colder. Then the pandemic hit in March and a point-of-no-return date on whether to begin the project or put it off until stakeholders knew more about COVID-19 loomed by April 15.

“We knew we had to get this project done in August all the way back in April. We felt Aug. 10 was when it had to be ready [for commissioning],” says Kyle Frayn, manager of transmission engineering for North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas. “When the pandemic started, knowing that construction was considered essential infrastructure here, we decided to still go forward and pull the trigger.”

不需要前进并使用老化设备和1940年代建造的设备至少再过一年。贝克·休斯（Baker Hughes）和当地合作伙伴纳尔逊技术（Nelson Technologies）已经为Grayslake管道互连站生产了管道配送阀，包括该电台与提供商Kinder Morgan的管道的连接的显示器和混合阀。

One of the immediate problems created by the pandemic was supply chain issues for contractor Meade.

“我们的供应商已经得到相当多的挑战smaller diameter electrical components,” says Frayn. “Things that were usually readily available. So our contractor Meade’s solution was ordering multiples and waiting for the one that came in first.”

米德（Meade）的风险管理和安全部门汇总了一项协证缓解计划，其中包括每天早上出现在工作时向每个员工提出的温度检查和标准问题。一个优点是这项工作完全是在户外活动，因此在露天实施社会遥远措施更容易。

米德（Meade）的项目经理和估算员马特·比文斯（Matt Bivins）表示：“居住在芝加哥，我们有许多在北岸项目上工作的常规员工，当地工会也有各种受过训练的人。”新利18备用网址“我们觉得即使Covid确实影响了该项目，我们也能够滚动它，而且效果很好。我们确实对此几乎没有影响。”

During demolition of the 1940s-era station, Meade discovered asbestos material that required mitigation. Meade’s crews worked three shifts seven days a week to get the job completed by the August deadline. More than 75 workers were on the job to get the project completed on time.

比文斯说：“有一些含石棉的材料。”“没有什么真正产生巨大影响的。在这里和那里有几天的时间来获得其他测试结果，以确保我们正确处理事情，但每天都很重要。”

米德此前曾在格雷斯莱克站（Grayslake Stati新利18备用网址on）为北岸汽油公司（North Shore Gas）开展了多个项目，比文斯（Bivins）表示，该团队对地下的东西有了非常深刻的了解，以及如何带入和安装贝克·休斯（Baker Hughes）和其他供应商（例如管道部分，配电阀和新的气味建筑。

由于现代设备，完整的栅极站更加可靠和弹性，并且在双气压控制，两次加热运行，更好的监视和远程监控以及更好的身体安全措施方面具有冗余。新电台合并了门和分销系统的所有权。在重建之前，登机台本身由供应商金德·摩根（Kinder Morgan）拥有。现在，北岸气体控制整个系统。

因为这是所有在不同部分建造的新设备，所以调试时期对于北岸气体很重要。

“The way we’re structured, we really needed this up and running by the end of October, and there was over a month of commissioning after the construction piece was done [in August],” Frayn says. “We had a nice break-in period ahead of that end of October critical date, and now we’re looking forward to seeing how this thing runs all winter here.”