Kinder Morgan Announces Plan to Install Natural Gas Pipeline in Alexandria/Liberty Area Affecting 50 Landowners (View Video Here)

2026-09-24 21:26:41
Dwayne Page

A major energy infrastructure company has announced plans to install a natural gas pipeline along an eleven-mile route along the northwestern edge of DeKalb County near Alexandria to the Liberty area and then into Cannon County potentially affecting up to 50 DeKalb property owners. Construction on the project is not expected for two years pending further environmental studies, land surveys, and property easement acquisition, etc. The pipeline is projected to go into service by 2029.

Allen Fore, Vice President of Kinder Morgan met with local leaders and the media Thursday to make the announcement. Fore explained that the proposed route will traverse the state from north to south passing through 10 Tennessee counties: Sumner, Macon, Trousdale, Smith, Cannon, Warren, Coffee, Franklin, and Marion, in addition to DeKalb County.

WJLE recorded a video interview with Allen Fore shown below in which he explains in detail the proposed pipeline project through DeKalb County

According to Fore, Tennessee is set to outpace its existing infrastructure and Southeast Connector, as this proposed project is known, will help support underserved areas.

“Kinder Morgan is in the natural gas energy infrastructure business,” said Fore. “If you look at our footprint throughout the state of Tennessee, our Tennessee gas pipeline has been serving Tennessee for over 50 years, and it is a major, intrastate natural gas system connecting gas supply, where it is underground to where it’s needed in places like Tennessee and other southeastern states.  Our new project is called Southeast Connector. It is going to be connecting our Tennessee gas pipeline system with our Southern Natural gas pipeline system, and it’s designed to provide additional natural gas, one of the most important forms of energy that we have in the United States, and ultimately to homes and businesses here in the state and throughout the southeastern United States,” said Fore

“We met with the county mayor this morning (Thursday) and the Chamber of Commerce and what we’re doing is beginning to introduce this project and the specifics of it to the county. Specifically, it will provide a new transportation route, or pipeline service, to include the county and the state of Tennessee. In this particular area the proposed pipeline will connect two existing pipeline systems and through this connection this part of the state will have access to natural gas that didn’t exist before, both from the northeast and from the Gulf area of the United States, where there’s plentiful natural gas. It’s going to bring a significant new supply to the area,” Fore explained.

Fore said his company plans to begin contacting up to 50 landowners in the Alexandria to Liberty areas as early as next week about securing survey and easement rights to their properties along the proposed pipeline route. The two-year pipeline project is currently still in the preliminary stages.

“If you look at our footprint in the county its roughly from the Alexandria area in the northwest part of the county to around the liberty area. Its about 11 miles of pipeline and it will involve about 50 landowners,” said Fore. “ If anybody’s wondering whether they’re part of this footprint, we’ll begin communication with landowners next week. First, by mail, there’ll be a communication, and then a follow up with a phone call from one of our land representatives to talk to the landowners specifically about their property and what we’re thinking about doing, our proposed route, and access to that property, for the purposes of survey. We will be offering a payment to landowners of $500 to access their property with their permission and take a look at what we need at the end of the day for the purposes of pipeline construction and operation,” Fore continued

“We need a 50 foot easement to bury the pipeline underground. All of this pipe in the county will be underground. The only time you really see the pipe is before it goes into the ground during construction. We’ll talk about what that means. We’ll be paying landowners for the easement. We’ll have a real estate transaction, just like a property transaction with the landowner for an easement. It’ll be an education process for everybody to learn all about this. They’ll have a specific land representative assigned to them that will come to their home and talk to them in great detail about what we’re proposing and the specifics of their property. Every parcel is unique, and we negotiate separately with every landowner. Its not a cookie cutter approach. There is uniqueness to every parcel. We want to learn about it. We want to survey. We want to do some cultural environmental surveys, some civil surveys, and make sure that the area that we have identified as a preliminary route will actually work. Work for the landowner, work for us.  That will happen over the next 3 to 4 months,” said Fore.

“This is a federally regulated project. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and we will begin that process in December. It’s called a pre filing process, and we will make a filing that further provides information about the project and the route. Then we begin a review process, a public component of the process. We will have an open house here in the county. There’ll be a public hearing for everybody to come, talk to us and learn more. We will give a status update on what we’re doing and then ultimately there will be an extensive federal regulatory review, environmental review, routing review, and landowner input. The state of Tennessee will have a role. The county will have a role and all of that leading up to regulatory approvals in 2028 and our beginning of construction in late 2028. The construction will last for approximately a year before we go in service,” explained Fore

“In the short term, folks will see land agents If you’re impacted, but you may see survey crews out in the field working on properties. Not a lot of activity but a fairly significant presence in the sense of the beginning of a big project,” he said.

Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North American, supplies natural gas to major utilities serving Tennessee including the Tennessee Valley Authority, Middle Tennessee Natural Gas Utility District, West Tennessee Public Utility District, Sevier County Utility District, and  a large number of municipal utilities including the Knoxville Utilities Board, Dickson Gas Authority, and the cities of Collinwood, Lexington, Lobelville, Henderson, Waynesboro, Ridgetop, Springfield, Portland, Bolivar, and Clarksville.

With an operation of approximately 1,300 miles of pipelines, two terminals and a regional office in Tennessee. Kinder Morgan owns and/or operates assets in 26 different counties throughout Tennessee including Benton, Bradley, Cheatham, Chester, Davidson, Decatur, Dickson, Hamilton, Hardeman, Hardin, Henderson, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Knox, Lewis, Loudeon, McMinn, McNairy, Monroe, Perry, Robertson, Shelby, Stewart, Sumner, and Wayne counties.