Oil Filtration Equipment

Egan’s preconstruction services were instrumental during the addition of oil filtration equipment at a compressor station for a major Michigan utility company. The natural gas line had a two-week, planned outage to accomplish the work, with little room for error. Pre-planning allowed Egan to engage its fabrication and VDC divisions for the most efficient installation plan.

Like most industrial jobs, Egan relied heavily on its fabrication shop to keep this shutdown to a minimum. Internal BIM specialists modeled the new pipeline, breaking it down into spool sizes that could be shipped on trucks to the job site. Certified welders fabricated the 30-inch spools to API standards in half the time of similar work built on site, thanks to the controlled environment and access to specialty equipment at Egan’s shop.

Egan’s installation plan required complete accuracy for four critical tie-in points. To ensure they were spot on, the company’s internal VDC team conducted a 3D scan of the area while fabrication was underway. The scan revealed that both the concrete elevations and vessel positions were off by more than standard tolerances. Using the scan data, Egan was able to correct the spool dimensions during the fabrication process, instead of having significant rework on site.

The 3D scan also identified inaccuracies in the structural steel for an oil receiving tank and associated piping. Egan had been simultaneously fabricating and constructing this work package prior to the outage. With the information, the onsite crew added missing structural steel to prepare for incoming fabricated oil piping, keeping the overall project on schedule.

The new pipeline, shown in white and light green on the model, required hydrotesting, while the valves, shown in red, did not. Egan is capable of hydrotesting in its fabrication shop, but in this instance chose to deploy its mobile hydrotesting trailer to the project site to support its innovative installation plan. When the spools arrived on site prior to the outage, Egan’s crew set one section of spools in place next to the existing gas line. Another set of spools was positioned in its final location, connected to the filter. The onsite team moved the first section of spools, bolting it to the second at the gray flanges indicated in the model. This approach allowed Egan to hydrotest the entire pipeline just prior to the outage, with half of it fully installed before the compressor station even came offline. The entire process required just two field welds.

Once the outage was underway, Egan cut into the existing natural gas line and set the spools into place. Egan then installed the valves in the gap where the lines had been flanged together. Two final, X-ray quality field welds to connect the new and old pipelines completed the job on time, within budget, and with no rework.