A client wanted to relocate a massive amount of buried process piping. He wanted to place and support the piping above ground and route it across a main rail line and two-lane highway.

EEC was contracted to undertake the design for this quarter mile long overhead pipe support system. The design included various towers, bridges and T-supports, along with their steel reinforced concrete foundations. An 80-foot long bridge was necessary to span the railroad. Relocation of the piping also necessitated various relocations of utility poles, as well as communication electrical cables in the area.

EEC designed the project using over 350 tons of hot dipped galvanized steel, 140 pilings for various support structures and five bridges. The new overhead system is designed to carry a 50-ton load over its entire length. Two of the bridges include walkways and accommodate a wide array of utilities in addition to process piping.

EEC's electrical engineering group was called on to re-locate the power, communications and instrumentation control cables that were located in the path of the new structures. An inventory of existing circuits, circuit capacity drawings and walk-downs for field verification of each control circuit was required prior to beginning of the relocation design drawings.

The new support system was constructed and is now in service.