The Engineering Behind Russia's Deadlocked Pipeline: Nord Stream 2

Nord Stream 2 is possibly the world's most controversial infrastructure project, and it was thrust further into the spotlight when Russia invaded Ukraine earlier in 2022. The future of this monumental feat of engineering and maritime construction is unclear. Right now, it seems doubtful that the Nord Stream 2 will ever be anything more than an empty tube of steel and concrete at the bottom of the Baltic Sea (and maybe that’s for the best).

Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady Hillhouse. We have new videos posted regularly, so please subscribe for updates. If you enjoyed the video, hit that ‘like’ button, give us a comment, or watch another of our videos!

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This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

SPECIAL THANKS
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Stock video and imagery provided by Nord Stream 2, Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Videoblocks.
Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Producer/Writer/Host: Grady Hillhouse
Editor/Production Assistant: Wesley Crump
Script Editor: Ralph Crewe
Graphics: Standard Studios

[happylittlewarlus]

I've seen these pipes stored in the port of Mussalo in Kotka, Finland. You wouldn't believe how many there were. They were stacked about 6 high and the rows just went on forever.

[Tehom]

You know so much about pipelines. I have a tiny contribution: "pig" didn't originally stand for "Pipeline Inspection Gauge", it was originally just a dumb plug they used to push thru long pipes with pressure to clean them from the inside, called "pigs" because of the squealing sound they made as they went thru.

[briangarrow]

One of my final projects before retirement was constructing pipelines at a coal powered thermal power plant complex. The plant was using the waste coal slurry stored in ponds over 50 years of operation as a fuel after cleaning out the dirt from the coal in a cleansing plant then mixing it with newly mined coal from another coal mine. The pipes were 18 inches or 45.72 cm in diameter and some of the lines were close to 10 miles in length. All of this was done to clean up the area around the plant and reclaim the land back to it’s original state before the plant closes in a couple of years. I have a few photos from my time on the pipe crew with the plant off in the background that I should enlarge and make into framed prints.

[hsnposp]

Hi! There are some interesting details that may be not fully covered in the video

Barge movement

The pipe barge is being held in place by several anchors (up to 8 for big ships, this is enough for 230m long barge)
and use geopositioning systems to determine exact location where the pipe must be installed.
The barge advances forward by slipping anchors at the back and drawing these at the front simultaneously.
Pipe stays in place, since it's being held by anchors and buoys, while barge is moving. Thus a space for a new pipe section is freed.
Then a small tugboat pick anchors one by one (this is the job for a diver) and put them in new locations according to planned vessel path. So the process repeats.

Landfalls

These are often most problematical parts for installation.
Cranes and bulldozers cannot swim. And a big ship cannot float in low waters too.
For these parts special ships that are capable of floating on the very low water levers are used.
But they cannot carry the whole pipe or other heavy equipment.
So the pipe section that connects terrestrial part of gas pipeline with a marine one is welded on the land.
Then a small boat grabs the cable that is attached to the pipe section to the pipe barge, brings it to the barge
and the prepared section is dragged onto the welding vessel.

Seasons of year

In northern seas navigation can stop (because of ice, obviously). The ships cannot wait here. Sometimes the ship has to go to maintenance or must be replaced. So they must leave the pipe.
By technology sea water never goes into the pipe.
So when the construction pauses for a long period of time the pipe has a cap welded and its ends is attached to anchors and buoys.
The whole pipe rests in water.
Later on a divers picks its ends, cap is removed and the process resumes.

Pipeline deepener / trencher

When a pipe lands onto the seafloor there is not enough stability provided by its own weight.
To keep it in place and protect from environment they use a pipeline deepener.
Which literally represents a remote controlled underwater bulldozer with boers installed on its mechanical arms.
It moves several times along the tube (above the tube) digging the trench under it.
The removed soil covers the tube.

Thank you! I am looking forward to hearing about this or similar subject more

[plapbandit]

Imagine switching FROM nuclear TO gas. Germany, you're insane.

[BeCurieUs]

Shutting down reactors while also using more Russian gas has to be one of the largest geo-economic/political mistakes I have seen in the energy sector in awhile.

[jimsteen]

Technically, it's not empty, it must be kept full of gas to maintain pressure. But considering someone blew it up yesterday, billions of cubic meters of methane are pouring into the Baltic as I type this.

[Life_of_Matthew]

It is such a shame that such a monumental feat in infrastructure isn't even going to be used. But as a civil engineering student, it is projects like these that inspire me so much

[Yossus]

As a German, I am fairly familiar with the political issues surrounding this project. I applaud you for facing the issue head-on, not purely focusing on the engineering but taking a more holistic view by bookending the science with the political and historical background. I think you did an excellent job covering the fascinating engineering while contextualising it to the appropriate degree.
I'm a physicist, but I seem to recall that it's very important for engineers to have a working knowledge and skills in ethics as well as the physical sciences. After this video, I would be very excited if you decided to make a series of videos about the ethical challenges engineers face, and best practises for resolving them - even if that's probably pretty far off from what your general audience expects from this channel!

[DavidNancyTom]

9:25 "Germany is planning to shutter the last 3 of its nuclear plants"
I don't get why people are closing nuclear plants when the entire point is to transition away from fossil fuels. Using nuclear energy as a bridge from fossil fuels to renewable energy makes way more sense than going back to natural gas for that transition.

[bewell]

10 Billion $ full of salt water. I wonder what kind of corrosion is happening now inside the pipelines because of the now saltwater exposure?

[jatojo]

With ocean water inside, these pipes will soon be useless.

[jmarcosravel]

I am a 50 years old electronic engineer. Thanks to your amazing videos, I'm starting a civil engineering undergraduate course and i am delighted!

[verdatum]

Wow. I've got some experience with undersea fiber-optic cable, and, this sounds massively more complicated than all of the frustrations involved in fiber.
Edit: To clarify, I was extremely far disconnected with the actual physical engineering of laying fiber-optic cable. I only learned enough about the issue to complete my task. But if you are curious about his concept, I cannot recommend enough the 1996 Wired Magazine article, by cyberpunk author Neal Stephenson, titled "Mother Earth Mother Board". He actually went along for the ride, and he really learned his stuff.

[roiq]

It's sad to see how this marvel of engineering and this monstruous amount of work and materials have ended up destroyed.

[bigrob]

Grady, we need a short on how the sabotaged sections could be repaired!!

[Saturn]

Politics aside, this is a massive undertaking! It's cool to see exactly how they did it, all the steps involved, logicistics, etc. It's incredible this is even possible to build! Pipe segments weight over 24 tons! Wow. And making sure there are zero leaks, that the highly-corosive salt water doesn't do anything; it's incredible this is possible at all!

[thatrealba]

I've done plenty of "regular", below ground oil and natural gas pipelining here in the USA, but under sea pipelining super interesting to me.

[DZegers]

I’m honestly surprised that it only cost $10 Billion

There’s a 26 mile highway construction project underway near my house that is going to cost over a Billion dollars and the most complicated part about it is some elevated flyover ramps at the interchanges.

I would have expected 1000+ km of under water pipe to cost a lot more

[energdnb]

This aged like milk, the pipeline was blown up today, in 3 places.