Midstream Terminal - Savannah, GA

Pond provided both general engineering support and project specific design, inspection and construction management services as part of the acquisition, upgrade and expansion of the Liquids Terminal in Savannah, GA. The facility was acquired to create a marine based terminal to handle multiple petroleum products for distribution via barge, rail and truck.

The terminal facility has two piers for receipt of various products, a rail siding for receipt and issue of ethanol and lube oil, and multiple truck receipt and issue facilities. Storage is divided into two tank farms connected via pipeline, with roughly 68,400,000 L of capacity at each facility in 26 tanks.

At the time of the acquisition, over half of the facility was out of service, including the small barge pier. Pond provided an engineering assessment of the existing infrastructure as well as API 653 and STI SP001 certified integrity assessments of the tanks within the terminals. Pond developed specific plans for repairs and upgrades to the tanks and piping to place systems back in service.

The primary receipt for petroleum products is the large pier which will accept a vessel up to 310m in length with a draft at the pier of 13m. The receipt rate through the dock transfer lines from the main pier is roughly 15,000 l/m. The pier is a combination of a wooden and concrete structure which was in a state of disrepair at the time of acquisition. A scope of work was developed and implemented to repair the pier.

In addition to the general engineering efforts, Pond also provided project-specific engineering designs to receive, store, and blend both biodiesel and ethanol fuels, as well as lube oil expansions. The blending systems are programmable skids that allow the actual blend rates to vary with each supply shipment. The systems had segregated receipt capabilities for the biofuels by either truck, rail or barge.

The rail capabilities in the facility included a siding with load and off-load capabilities for up to 15 cars. This system only reached the west terminal area.  It is used primarily for blended lube oils. The terminal creates up to fifteen different blends of lube oils and additives.  The rail siding was modified to allow for transload of ethanol and biodiesel as temporary upgrades. Pond developed a scope to install a new rail spur into the East terminal area for the primary purpose of receipt of ethanol and biodiesel shipments. The new spur extends through existing wetlands, partially along an abandoned rail bed.

Pond also developed a scope for recommissioning of the smaller pier to allow supply of products into smaller barges without interrupting the use of the large pier. The small pier is directly connected to the East terminal area and is far enough downstream to allow simultaneous use of both facilities. The concept included issuing all grades of petroleum fuels to barges up to 4,770,000 L for distribution along the East coast and up river. As a result the plan included marine vapor recovery system to be installed.

Pond’s integrity group also provided assessment of the cathodic protection systems for the tanks, piping and piers at both terminals. Leak detection and cathodic protection was also designed and supplied for the tanks which were repaired/upgraded with new bottoms.

Pond also provided an automated dry chemical fire suppression system for the truck rack in the east terminal area as part of the upgrade to dispense ethanol blended fuels. Because this truck rack is remote from the main terminal operations building, the system can initiate automatically based upon input from sensors in the canopy, but it can also be triggered remotely based upon CCTV monitoring from the control room.

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