Fuel Tankage, Defense Fuel Supply Point
Location
USNS Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico
Contract Method
Design / Bid / Build
Brief Project Description
This project for the US Navy involved the provision of a 105,000 bbl DFM and a 65,000 bbl JP-5 aboveground fuel tanks, complete with piping, controls, spill containment, fire protection, lightning protection, lighting, cathodic protection, and incidental related work. The new JP-5 tank was located at the airfield site; the DFM tank was located at the hilltop fuel farm. Both tanks were designed and constructed in accordance with API 650. The tanks were field erected upon cast-in-place concrete ringwalls, each within an oil resistant liner and a cast-in-place containment dike system. The tank receipt and issue distribution system at the JP-5 tank site included installation of three 100 hp fuel pumps, associated controls and instrumentation and tie-ins to the existing fuel system.
The welded steel fuel tanks were coated internally and externally with epoxy primer and intermediate coats. Modified PTFE topcoat was used on the interior, and the exterior topcoat was polyurethane. The tanks were further fitted with full contact floating aluminum pan roofs. The containment dikes were supplied with a drainage system through an oil water separator so as to avoid any oily waste discharge to the environment through rainwater run off.
Several challenges were encountered throughout the course of this project including working within the active fuel farms, making tie-ins to the existing fueling systems, and working within the airfield between active taxi and active runways. This work involved excavation and handling of approximately 115,000 cubic yards of excavated materials, of which 60,000 cubic yards was fractured and fragmented rock. Working in the tropical environment of Puerto Rico provided several challenges related to the humidity and salt content in the air and application of the coating system, as well as the constant threat of hurricane conditions from July through September each year.
