BLM – Terminal Site
Town:
State:
Product:
Application:
Freeport
TX
Fire Water Inlet Structure & Wet Wells
Utility / Fire Water
Job Type:
Subtype:
Engineer:
Industrial
Oil & Gas
TKE Engineering
Boardwalk Louisiana Midstream, LLC (“BLM”) provides transportation and storage services for olefins and natural gas liquids and provides brine supply services for producers and consumers of petrochemicals throughout the Gulf Coast. BLM’s new butane injection storage terminal in Freeport, Texas allows BLM to continue to expand its midstream operations across the Texas Gulf Coast. ParkUSA was contacted to assist in the design and development of a fire water inlet structure that supplies water to the site’s fire water pump house.
To accomplish this, ParkUSA’s engineering team collaborated with the project engineer to design the appropriate solution. Because this project involved a fire water pump, ParkUSA utilized the National Fire Protection Association (“NFPA”) 20 Standard as a basis for design. To conform with NFPA 20, ParkUSA followed the requirements set forth in section 4.14.8, as highlighted below:
- 4.14.8.1 Where the water supply is obtained from an open source such as a pond or wet pit, the passage of materials that might clog the pump shall be obstructed.
- 4.14.8.2 Double Intake Screens shall be provided at the suction intake.
- 4.14.8.3 Screens shall be removable, or an in-situ cleaning shall be provided.
- 4.14.8.6 Mesh screens shall be brass, copper, Monel, stainless steel, or other equivalent corrosion-resistant metallic material wire screen of 0.50 inches (12.7 mm) maximum mesh and No. 10 B&S gauge.
- 4.14.8.7 Where flat panel mesh screens are used, the wire shall be secured to a metal frame sliding vertically at the entrance of the intake.
- 4.14.8.11 Screens shall have at least 62.5% percent open area.
Once the design was finalized, ParkUSA fabricated the structure in-house at its precast concrete and steel fabrication facilities. ParkUSA’s fire water inlet structure contained the following components:
- 8’ x 8’ x 17’ precast Symons formed concrete structure;
- (1) galvanized bar grating to capture bulk floatables;
- (2) removable stainless-steel mesh screens to capture floatables;
- (2) cast iron, slide gate valves to regulate water flow; and
- Cast in dowel bars to assist in anchoring the structure.
In addition, ParkUSA manufactured two wet wells consisting of an 8’ x 8’ x 20’ precast concrete vault, reinforced with rebar, and an 8” basin extended lip. These wet wells were to house the pumps used for the fire water pump house.
