PRCI Research to improve On-shore pipeline Construction continues with two projects that target specific area of improvement in efficiency and quality. The INGAA Foundation and IPLOCA are participating in these efforts because the results will be highly beneficial to both operators and contractors.
One project CNST-2-3 is focused on the development of an industry guidance document that captures best practices in pipeline route selection. Although the route for a pipeline is selected very early in the process, it has great influence on construction cost and schedule. In many instances operators do not have physical access to portions of a right of way at the time when a route selection decision must be made. This project is drawing together best practices to select the optimal route within an information constrained environment. The draft of the resulting guidance document is currently under review and is expected to be completed in the coming year, once all of the review comments have been addressed. The other project CNST-2-2 targets improving existing practices for the control of pipeline stresses during the pipeline lifting & lowering processes. Currently, two dimensional analysis and methodologies are used to ascertain whether the lifting and lowering-in stresses are within allowable limits. The approach generally used has been to conduct a static analysis on level ground with the pipe shape as defined by an S-curve with all side booms equally spaced and taking up their portion of the load. There has been very limited three dimensional analyses conducted to simulate actual pipe lowering operations with varying distances between side booms. Also, an industry guidance document for this phase of construction does not currently exist. CNST-2-2 will produce an industry guidance document for lifting and lowering stress management that is based on closer alignment with actual field conditions. The resulting document will provide general access to “construction best practices” in the format of a guidance document that can be used by both operators and contractors.