Page 27 - Impiantistica Italiana

Total supervisors, which was led by our Most of the work was per-
Construction Manager and Total Project formed inside the units
Manager. or facilities in operation,
therefore requiring special
Most of the construction precautions and procedu-
work was performed res. Unfortunately, due to
access and erection con-
“inside the units strains the majority of the
or facilities while works was executed on a
stick-built basis.
in operation, which However, to lower safety
required special risks at site and to im-
precautions prove the productivity by
starting mechanical wor-
and procedures ks outside of the refinery
whilst the civil works were
still going on, two areas
The construction phase started in early where a modularisation/
2015 and was completed by November pre-dressing approach
2016 with the hand-over of the last system was deemed feasible,
to the Refinery. were identified.
It encountered several problems which The first area was the Pi-
caused a consistent delay in the comple- pe-Rack 02, since it was
tion of some areas in respect of the ori- a brand-new pipe rack
ginal schedule, in particular in the Utilities of a significant size with
and Off-sites portion. a good access from one
First of all, the lack of updated documen- of the main roads. All the Sour Water Stripper Unit
tation of the existing underground layouts “legs” were erected on a
would have required a more extensive trial stick-built basis whilst the
excavation campaign that, indeed, due to upper part of the pipe rack was built in
high cost and lack of time, was limited only nine modules. The majority of the works
to some areas. The modules were pre-assembled in a
In consequence of that, and due to several mechanical subcontractor’s yard near- was executed on
last-minute modifications caused by unex- by the refinery with all the installed lines “a stick-built basis,
pected underground obstacles, the civil hydro-tested, painted and insulated. but two areas were
works lasted much longer than planned. Each module was shipped by barge from
Notwithstanding the increase of resources yard to a quay close to the refinery and identified as suitable
required and the involvement of new con- then by SPMT (Self-Propelled Modular for modularization
tractors to tackle this additional scope of Transporter) to the Refinery. They have
work, the delay in completion of the civil been then lifted to their final position. This
works was never recovered and it affected activity lasted around two weeks. In general, apart from the fact that the
the overall project schedule. This operation was a great success as units where we worked were all in opera-
modules shipment and tion, the works in the Off-Sites and Utili-
lifting was done strictly ties areas were deeply affected by seve-
in accordance with the ral constraints and problems that caused
agreed schedule and all their delayed completion.
modules fit perfectly in First of all, several contractors were simul-
their final position (see taneously working at Antwerp Refinery, in
pictures). most of the cases in the same or nearby
The second area was areas. This has caused an enormous effort
the Sour Water Stripper by all the teams involved for the proper co-
Column. In fact, being ordination and management of work per-
the Sour Water Stripper mits and road blockages.
unit built in a brown-field In fact, roads could be blocked to allow
area, with several safety all the heavy transportation and lifting ac-
constraints due to sur- tivities only strictly complying with Refine-
rounding existing units in ry Safety Procedure as far as access of
operations, there was a emergency vehicles was concerned.
great interest to maximi- In addition to the OPTARA Project works,
se its pre-dressing (insu- obviously the Refinery continued with its
lation, platform and lad- normal operations, those requiring main-
ders, piping) before the tenance works, etc.
installation on its founda- As a matter of principle, urgent refinery
Interconnecting pipe-rack tions (see pictures). works took precedence over project wor-

Impiantistica Italiana - Settembre-Ottobre 2018 25