VIDALIA — Federal officials have given the go-ahead and construction-related activities have started for a major gas pipeline that will run through Ferriday and Vidalia before ending in Natchez.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the green light to the Natchez Pipeline Project — which will ultimately traverse Franklin, Catahoula and Concordia parishes on its way to Natchez — earlier this month.

American Midstream Partners’ Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dan Campbell said Tuesday morning initial construction activities have begun on the plan to replace an aging 8-inch pipeline with a higher-volume, 12-inch system.

The pipeline should be in service by late 2016, Campbell said.

The 51.96-mile pipeline will have three anchor shippers — Atmos Energy, the Louisiana Municipal Gas Authority and BASF Corp.’s industrial site in Vidalia.

Atmos serves the communities of Ferriday, Gilbert and Wisner, La., and Natchez. The LGMA serves Clayton, Jonesville, Sicily Island and Vidalia.

The work comes nearly two years after the company announced it intended to abandon the 1920s-era line running from Monroe to Baton Rouge, because of safety concerns.

But because the Midla line is the only gas pipeline that serves the area, the announcement prompted a flurry of negotiations between local leaders, economic development authorities and the company. The Louisiana Legislature went so far as to pass a law changing how pipelines could be abandoned in the state in response to the concerns.

Eventually, the company agreed to the current plan, which provides greater capacity to the communities it will service but is shorter than the original line. The communities that are not on the new line have been given alternative accesses to gas service.

Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland was on the Louisiana Municipal Gas Association’s board at the time — and was reappointed in December — and last week the LGMA wrote him a letter of thanks for the role he was able to play in getting state and federal officials to step in and help with the project.

“The damage that would have resulted due to lack of natural gas availability would have been devastating for economic development opportunities in these areas,” LMGA Managing Director Ken Drone wrote. “There is no way to calculate the number of existing jobs that were not lost, and future jobs that would not have been created were it not for our success in arriving at a resolution to the matter.”

Copeland said he was pleased to receive the letter of appreciation.

“I worked hard to keep MIDLA from shutting down its pipeline and thus discontinuing service to the citizens of Vidalia,” he said. “This would have resulted in a lack of low cost, reliable natural gas, which would have been devastating to our community.”