Designed by Ross Group Engineering (RGE), and constructed by Ross Group Industrial (RGI), this project was a complicated, multiple-site, plant relocation. The project involved moving a decommissioned 400 GPM Amine and Dehy, located in St. Jo, Texas, to an operational Amine and Dehy facility in Pelican, Louisiana, which was 335 miles away.

 

The team mobilized at two different facilities – the existing site and the new one. The team de-mobilized the old plant and made it “ship ready” by removing all of the balance of plant pipe, conduit, electrical gear, and instruments. In tandem, the team at the new site in Louisiana began layout and concrete foundations.

 

This intensive plant move consisted of 22 heavy haul loads, which required navigating state, county, and Parish roads to arrive at the most treacherous part of the journey, the plant road itself. The plant road cut through a forest and was comprised of five miles of gravel road, not much wider than one lane.

 

Once the trucks completed the journey, the team commenced multiple critical picks and managed the logistics of receiving the equipment at the new site, such as setting each piece on its recently cured new foundation and fitting the connecting piping. The RGE and RGI teams managed to achieve the plant move in three days from start to finish, an impressive feat.

 

After the plant relocation was complete, the next step was tying the plant into the existing infrastructure, which constituted the bulk of work. Most of the pipe work was underground and trenching through the Louisiana “soil cement” was like trenching through concrete. The team pushed themselves to the limits fabricating, installing, and hydrotesting all of the new pipe, fabricating an assortment of platforms and catwalks, major trenching and duct bank construction, concrete and flowable fill pours, and dirt work.

 

Another amazing aspect of this project was that the weld count was nearly 800 (or over 15,000 inches of weld) and the project was completed zero weld repairs. This is outstanding since a repair rate of 5% or under is industry standard and 0% is virtually unheard of in the industry.