HARPERSFIELD, N.Y. — The 124-mile Constitution Pipeline will likely bring some relief from high natural gas prices to residents of New York City and New England, but it will also bring anguish to some landowners in the wooded hills and valleys in its path.
It will slash a mile-long gash through a pristine forest tended by the Kernan family for seven decades. It will spoil Andrew Havas’ plans to build a home and automotive shop. It will disrupt farming for dairyman Ken Stanton. It will dash hopes Bob Lidsky and Bev Travis had of building the hilltop home where they planned to retire with their five huge mountain dogs.
‘‘This pipeline destroys any hope of either building or selling the land for a profit,’’ said Lidsky, a retired designer who raises Leonberger dogs with his wife in the Catskills hamlet of Andes and also owns 42 acres in the pipeline’s path.
Of 651 landowners in New York and Pennsylvania affected by the $700 million project, 125 refused to sign right of way agreements. Condemnation proceedings undertaken by Constitution under the Natural Gas Act have largely resolved the disputes, either through settlements or access granted by a judge.
Only four property owners still have cases pending, all in New York. The courts will set compensation for landowners who did not reach agreements on their own. In Lidsky’s case, for example, the judge granted Constitution access and ordered the company to cover compensation of up to $11,600.
‘‘We’re looking at early summer to start construction,’’ with completion next year, said Chris Stockton, spokesman for Tulsa-based pipeline operator Williams Partners LP. Most regulatory hurdles have been cleared, though the project still needs air and water permits from the state and another permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Many communities along the pipeline’s path from Pennsylvania’s gas fields to a transmission hub 80 miles southwest of Albany support the project for the jobs, taxes, and access to natural gas it will bring. Williams Partners has also cultivated good will by doling out more than $1.6 million in grants to local nonprofits. Pipeline backers say it is the first to be approved out of a slew of proposals designed to bring cheaper domestic gas to Northeast markets that have become increasingly reliant on it for home heating.
But opposition has been fierce. ‘‘It’s the principle of the thing, that they’re just taking land that I’ve paid dearly for over the years,’’ said Ken Stanton, whose farm supports three generations in Schoharie.