FISHERSVILLE — Dozens of people floated in and out of the Augusta Expo last week hoping to land a job working on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
The job-seekers came from around the area, many of them ready to hand resumes to representatives of local unions that will put people to work constructing the 600-mile, interstate project.
Jeremy Riddle, of Harrisonburg, was one of the dozens who filtered in and out during the 2½-hour event on April 24. The 59-year-old said he’s been “pipelining” all his professional life, working on multiple projects over about 40 years.
“That’s how I make my living,” Riddle said.
Getting work on the ACP is important to Riddle because it would “feed my family, build up my retirement.”
The pipeline jobs, Riddle said, have given him “a good life.”
If he lands a spot on the ACP, Riddle would become one of about 17,000 total workers employed by the project, officials say.
Dominion Energy, the lead partner of the project — which will cross through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, including about 27 miles in Nelson County — says it aims to put locals to work with good-paying jobs. Dominion officials say entry-level jobs start out at $20 to $25 per hour, plus benefits.
Construction jobs would include the work it takes to put the pipeline in the ground as well as welding, bending and other processes.
Labor unions that will employ workers for the project have said they will train those interested in construction jobs, too. One of the groups, the Laborers’ International Union of North America, has partnered with the Virginia Community College System to recruit and train Virginia residents to work on the ACP.
In addition to the labor unions at the event last Tuesday — one of 10 open houses/job fairs held along the route during the past few weeks — a handful of third-party organizations whose job it will be to provide inspections of the pipeline also were in attendance.
Inspection work includes scrutiny of the construction itself as well as of ACP’s compliance with its federal and state certificates.
With full-scale construction yet to begin, though, it’s unclear exactly how many inspection jobs are needed, as the number of inspectors correlates with how many crews are at work at any given time. Project officials say well over 1,000 inspectors should be hired during the project’s construction.
Inspection jobs are harder to come by, with applicants having to meet many qualifications and have certain certifications to be considered.
Lonnie Childress, president and CEO of Quality Integrated Services, an inspection and construction management firm with offices in the U.S. and Canada, spoke with job-seekers during the event about the type of workers his company is seeking. His firm will provide third-party inspections of the ACP, as it has with “hundreds” of other pipeline projects.
“The integrity of the pipe is the bottom line,” he said.
Dozens of ACP representatives also spoke with job-seekers and other visitors, including landowners, about details of the project, specifically focused on construction methods.
Not everyone at the open house last week came to find jobs, though. A handful of opponents from the surrounding area, including Nelson County, sought to instead discourage workers from seeking jobs with the ACP.
Those opponents, including Deborah Kushner and Jill Averitt, of Nelson County, handed out papers with information on renewable energy jobs, hoping to dissuade job-seekers from applying for what they call temporary jobs with the controversial project they claim will do more harm than good.