CLEARBROOK — Enbridge Energy Partners opens a series of open houses across northern Minnesota on Wednesday along the route of its proposed Line 3 Replacement Project.

The first meeting is in the northwestern Minnesota community of Clearbrook. Others are planned for Thief River Falls, Hallock, Park Rapids, Pine River, McGregor and Carlton through Dec. 11.

Line 3 runs over 1,000 miles from Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wis. It was built in 1968 and operates below its original capacity due to safety concerns. So Enbridge wants to replace the entire existing 34-inch pipe with a new 36-inch line to provide more reliable deliveries of crude oil.

The segment between Clearbrook and Superior would mostly parallel the route of Enbridge’s separate proposed Sandpiper pipeline.

Environmentalists have advocated a different route to avoid sensitive wetlands.