Newfoundland Transshipment Terminal

The Newfoundland Transshipment Terminal, located on the northeast edge of Placentia Bay, serves as a crude oil transfer and storage facility servicing the Hibernia oil fields. In January 1999, an expansion was announced, consisting of a loading platform, and berthing and mooring dolphins.

After careful review of the initial plans, Peter Kiewit Sons Co., a subsidiary of Kiewit Corporation, offered the owner a different approach during the design-build process. With frigid temperatures and a limited construction season, the owner accepted the design alternatives due to savings in time and money. The modified design consisted of prefabricated steel jackets with precast instead of cast-in-place pile caps and roadway slabs, which resulted in a 40% reduction in the number of piles needed.

Following transportation of the 100-ft.-tall prefabricated jackets to the construction site, an exhaustive analysis of the roll-up procedure was required to rotate the 14 jackets to an upright position while keeping stresses within acceptable limits. Once complete, the jackets were leveled using water-activated, hydraulic jacking pads. Once the jackets were set and anchored, piles were driven into place before a prefabricated single-lane traffic deck was barged to the site and hoisted into place. The expansion was completed in December 1999, five months early and $1.5 million below the original estimate.