14 | Culham delivers on tank project Following a four-day voyage down the coastline on a barge owned by Heron Construction, the tanks arrived at the Port of Tauranga the first week of August 2023. T T from page 12 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Culham Engineering “Generally, a tank of this dimension would be built on site after all the civil foundations had been completed. Constructing the tanks here in Whangarei enabled Stolthaven Terminals to complete all the civil works concurrently, saving about sixteen months out of a standard build duration of this nature. “That was a major benefit for our client. While the cost of transporting the completed tanks, along with the additional design work that was required was very expensive, fabricating the tanks at our heavy fabrication facilities where we had all our equipment and people made us much more efficient than if we were doing so on site, where there are potential restrictions.” Temporary foundations were built on an area of Culham Engineering’s yard that had been specially allocated for the project, with the tank floor fabricated directly on the foundation. “Effectively, a tank is a big cylinder, comprised of a slightly conical shaped floor for central drainage, the cylinder itself, and a roof,” explains Dave. “Trusses radiate to the sides from the centre like bike spokes that hold the roof up. The cylinder was fabricated from sheets of steel plate, three-metre-high, that were already rolled to the shape of the tank. “The roof, trusses and first row of steel plates were jacked up to enable the next row to be inserted, so that we were only working three metres high at any one time. The circumference of the tank is about 80 metres, with each row made up of 6.5 3-metre-wide steel plates. “The process was continuously repeated, lifting the roof up and inserting a full circumference set of three metre plates underneath it, until the cylinder was completely formed. There are standards that must be met, and the tanks were built to API specifications (American Petroleum Institute).” While a tank is designed to sit in a static position holding liquid, Dave draws the analogy of an empty coke can and says special thought and design considerations had to be given to these tanks because they had to be jacked up, put on a trailer and transported on barge down the coast. Then same again happened at the other end before the tanks were positioned on their foundations at the Port of Tauranga. “To enable that to happen, we undertook a lot of temporary works inside the tanks to make them structurally sound. That consisted of a large centre column, which was then triangulated. Once the tanks arrived at site, all that temporary reinforcing work had to be removed. ”Because of the significant width of the tanks, a specially engineered support frame was built so that when we jacked the tanks up the frame sat on two trailers, which was all part of the early design work.” While not specifically undertaken because of the tank project, Culham Engineering upgraded its wharf and built a heavy haul road alongside the Hātea River so that it could transport heavy items like the tanks on trailers to its heavy loadout facility. Following a four-day voyage down the coastline on a barge owned by Heron Construction, the tanks arrived at the Port of Tauranga the first week of August 2023. “That four-day period included a weather window and waiting to get into a specific berth made available to us, and then we had four days to get the tanks off. It was a pretty hectic ninety-six hours to walk the tanks off, because it was all based around high tides and getting the barge heights right with the wharf, so that the tanks could be transferred to the wharf. “We walked the tanks on hydraulic self-propelled heavy haul trailers through the Port of Tauranga to the Stolthaven tank farm, which borders the highway. “Once the tanks arrived at site, they had to be insulated and clad in roofing iron, and then all the temporary works removed, ready to go into service in December 2023.” Acknowledging that the sheer scale of the project brought with it unique challenges, Dave says the success of the project had to be attributed to the team behind its delivery. “Greg Hyde, our project manager, worked with the project engineers, the naval architects, Heron Construction, PTS Heavy Transport and the Ports of Tauranga. “It was also our ability to think outside the box and work through all the details to understand the risks and problems we were going to encounter, right from the start. “So, it was the people, the thinking and the effort that went in up front to design not only a tank that could be used in situ but a tank that could be transported via water and could cope with a four-metre swell. It was also the facilities we have in Whangarei that enables us to do these types of projects.” • STEEL • STAINLESS • PLATE & COIL PROCESSING • ENGINEERING STEELS • ALUMINIUM Proud to be a key supplier to Culham Engineering
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