Gas-guzzlers help Vopak expansion
Creativity call: To keep disruption to a minimum BMT had to pre-cast Vopak's terminal expansion components on shore
Increased demand for petroleum drove Vopak Terminal Singapore Pte Ltd to revisit its jetty layout and capacity at its Petroleum Storage Terminal at Banyan Basin on Singapore’ s Jurong Island.
The Oil Tanker Jetty comprises two berths: the inside one handles vessels ranging from 1,000 dwt to 25,000 dwt, while the outer one caters for ones in the 1,000 dwt-50,000 dwt range. Provision has also been made for the possible sharing of the mooring structure, if future berth expansion eastwards takes place. BMT is currently looking into the feasibility behind this.
BMT managing director David Wignall points out that Vopak appointed its own engineering, procurement, and construction contractor, with whom it had worked with in the past. BMT assisted with the drawing up of construction contracts and technical specification for the works. The consultant was also involved in seeking and monitoring the government approval in legal and technical matters related to the project.
The main headache in this project was that Vopak had two operational tanker jetties in place just 150m away from the construction area.This meant that the contractor had to liaise with terminal operation team on a daily basis and ensure that the anchor chains of floating marine plant did not interfere with tankers going on and off berth as part of their routine operations. To keep disturbance to an absolute minimum, the contractor had to pre-cast components on shore prior to them being incorporated into the structure. This meant the presence of on-site marine plant was kept to an minimum.
Steel pipe piles were used for the foundation and these were factory fabricated in standard lengths, then driven to design level in a single operation. Pre-cast components were then slotted on top, rather in the fashion of a jigsaw puzzle.
The project was completed within the agreed timeframe, without additional loss for accident injury time.
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