2012 Product Awards Winners

Nestled quietly off the beaten path, the six million gallons of total elevated water storage on a single site makes this the largest elevated water storage project anywhere. The two tanks tower over the neighboring trees and have a pleasant, calming feeling, welcoming the thriving new developments slated for nearby surroundings. However, don’t let any of this fool you as these tanks have already had national TV exposure by being featured on the History Channel’s show “Modern Marvels”, an episode named ‘Under Pressure’.

These massive structures are using over 1,040 tons of steel in the tanks; 48 tons of reinforcing steel in the shafts; 100 tons of structural, reinforcing, and miscellaneous steel for the ladders, piping, and foundations. These two tanks tout 134,000 square feet of painted steel surface and are gracefully topped with nearly full-perimeter handrails yielding to extremely large surface area as seen from the overhead view. This project demanded tight constraints within the shafts to delicately fit all the 16” and 24” stainless steel piping, valves, and controls. One of the tanks had the full pumping station controls built inside while another had to have its dome poured at night because of the summer heat. Unique safety and fall-arrest systems were utilized as well as a complex SCADA system. Thousands of design and construction man-hours were spent inside of the 910 day window of completion to successfully deliver these two astounding tanks on this one site.

This 2.6 million gallon steel reservoir was built to replace an existing concrete reservoir that was determined to be past its useful life. This is a very unique structure where the roof system consists of a complicated braced frame structure supported completely independently of the tank shell. The bi-level roof system is a square shape with rounded corners all cantilevering over the tank shell. Over the structural steel frames, girders and rafters, the roof is made of corrugated decking, redwood nailers, and built up bituminous roofing with a rock roof. The roof utilized weathering steel accents including the fascia, railing system and a pair of false corbels at each quadrant. With input from the neighborhood association, the architecture design of the roof was developed to provide similar visuals to the tank being replaced. To minimize the view impact to the neighbors on the hill above the tank, the full perimeter roof railing was constructed using (6) ¼” diameter stainless steel cable strands between the top rail and the roof surface.

Design, fabrication, and field erection of twelve (12) molten salt thermal energy storage tanks, 122’ diameter and 50’ tall with a total capacity of 36,000,000 gallons of combined storage. The tanks were constructed at Solana Generating Station in Gila Bend, AZ; the world’s largest solar power plant incorporating thermal energy storage, whereby solar energy is captured and stored throughout the day and later used to provide electrical power after the sun goes down. The plant generates 280 MW CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) and serves over 70,000 homes for Arizona Public Service. By storing thermal energy in the form of Molten Salt at over 750°F, these storage tanks are capable of providing six (6) hours of generation capacity to the grid after sunset or on cloudy days.

The tanks feature additional steel material used for the internally stiffened self-supported dome roofs, internal pump out tanks, large bore sparger piping, air cooled foundations, alcoves in the roofs for pumping equipment and several other unique and proprietary internal features.

The tanks include over 20,000,000 pounds of carbon steel, 10,000 linear feet of pipe and 60,000 linear feet of structural beams, custom made from carbon steel plate product. The tanks took approximately 18 months to construct, which required working from 2:00 a.m. to noon during the summer months to avoid the extreme heat and sun conditions in the dessert.

Though there are no internal coatings, the tanks and internal piping all had to be mechanically cleaned after erection and prior to salt loading. With almost 600,000 sq ft to clean and no access through the shell, blasting the tanks was extremely challenging.

This tank project used a whopping 8,400,000 pounds of steel plate to construct these durable, and leak free tanks.

The large US Navy Environmental Project included the removal of existing obsolete underground and aboveground storage tanks. The removed capacity was replaced with 1,040,000 Bbls stored into 8 large (149′ Diameter x 51′) internal floating roof above ground storage tanks and (2) smaller tanks to consolidate previous multiple tank locations and smaller sizes.

The new tanks were built to current API 650 Standards including very stringent seismic requirements for this Southern California location. In addition to special paint and cathodic protection, corrosion allowances were also included to address the close proximity to a marine environment.

This big and beautiful 3,000,000 gallon Standpipe shows off a unique, custom mural that allows the tank to blend in with its surroundings. The mural idea was instrumental in helping to secure the permit to allow this tank to be built at this location.

Steel was the most efficient material for this tall structure in an extremely challenging high seismic area that included special considerations for the anchor bolts, free board and sloshing.

Since this tank was in close proximity to an airport, a special roof beam arrangement was used to eliminate a tall center column and lower the roof height to allow it to meet the FAA requirements.

This large Standpipe (70′-0” Diameter x 105′-6” Shell Height) demonstrates the flexibility of steel to be designed and built in high seismic areas and to creatively use coatings to change the appearance of the tank to meet various Owner’s needs.

15′-4″ Wide

20′-5″ Overall height above pavement/rail

158′-9″ Vessel overall length

202′-7″ Overall length of transportation equipment including vessel

635,000 Lbs. Vessel shipping weight

844,464 Lbs. Overall weight of transportation equipment including vessel

Man-hours to fabricate: 9,959

Project Duration: 66-weeks

This project was unique as it was the largest vessel ever fabricated in our plant. The most complicated component was the shipping coordination of this vessel as it traveled via special train movement from our plant to a local rail siding in Medford, OK then was transported via highway the last 1.9 miles to the plant. Due to the very limited axle weight permitting by the State of Oklahoma it took more than 6-weeks to finalize the final highway permit after the load was received at Medford rail siding. The actual rail time from our plant to the rail siding in Medford, Oklahoma was less than 8-hours on a special train which required that all other trains on the tracks had to be diverted during this 200 mile rail movement. The highway movement time was less than 2-hours for the final 1.9 miles.

This tank is a split compartment 30,000 gallon portable asphalt storage tank that is wrapped in 6” of insulation and embossed aluminum. Each compartment contains thermal fluid heating coils, temperature controls and thermal fluid control valves. A 4” 300 gallon per minute asphalt unloading pump is mounted on the gooseneck for filling the tank compartments. There is additional jacketed plumbing that allows the unloading pump to recirculate the contents of the compartment, or to transfer liquid from one compartment to another. On the rear of the trailer, an asphalt metering skid is mounted to accurately meter liquid asphalt to a hot mix asphalt (HMA) production facility. The tank also features a balanced thermal fluid piping system that delivers hot oil to each of the tank coils and also to both pump systems, valves and jacketed asphalt lines. The entire system is pre-plumbed, tested, and ready for production!

“Life Evolving”

The Life Evolving sculpture represents the ribonucleic acid (RNA) nucleotide molecule. The Life Evolving sculpture is the creation of Chilean-American artist and scientist Biagio Azzarelli.

Hollow metal spheres attached to two rings represent the base of the molecule, and are supported by beams originating in a large sphere representing a cell. Placement of the beams correspond to the axial tilt of the earth, which determines the seasons and therefore, influences biological development and adaptation.

Scientists hypothesize that the single-strand RNA was the biological building block of the Earth’s primitive life forms, replicating themselves into increasingly complex forms millions of years before the appearance of the double helixes of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

Biagio Azzarelli contacted us to handle the steel fabrication assembly and erection of the Life Evolving Sculpture.

A polished bronze sphere sits atop a 13 foot diameter 304 stainless steel field erected tank acting as the steel foundation. Two stainless steel 8” pipes rise like antennas from the bronze sphere. On top of these steel pipes are steel rings that represent the core structure of a ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecule, thought to be the catalyst for the evolution of all life on Earth. Around these rings are hollow metal spheres, representing nitrogen, carbon, phosphorous and oxygen atoms. This project was funded to a large degree by Eli Lilly & Company.

Our company supplied the steel pipe for Phase II of the Lewis & Clark Regional WTP. This included piping for the filter gallery in the lower level of the main plant building. There was over 2000 feet of 54″, 48″, 42″, 36″, 30″, 24″ & 16″ pipe packed into the 170 foot long gallery.

Also provided along with the steel pipe were fabricated reducers, elbows, saddles, harnessed sleeve couplings, mechanic couplings and reducing elbows. Pipe was furnished with zinc-rich primer and cement mortar lining.

In addition to the interior pipe, we also furnished 2535 ft. of 72″, 54″ and 30″ buried pipe that was polyurethane coated and cement mortar lined.

Our company provided pipe to the Salt Lake City Terminal Reservoir Project in Salt Lake City, UT. Seven-hundred tons of steel was used to form 5,200 feet of pipe of various diameters. This material was welded, belled, hydrostatically tested, cement mortar lined, and polyurethane coated at our facility. Upon completion of the material, it was loaded on railcars in South Carolina and began its journey to Salt Lake City, UT. After traveling more than 2,250 miles via rail, the pipe had to be transloaded via flat-bed trucks in Denver, CO, due to clearance restrictions to get into Salt Lake City, and to be able to travel over the continental divide. This required an additional 540 miles of travel to reach the job site. The piping material was delivered to the job site defect free, and installed successfully.

It takes a lot of words to describe the new 715S stainless steel remote fill box. From engineers and manufacturers to distributors and end users, everyone has something to say about the advantages of the 715S.

Why do engineers like it?

• Durable—multi-purpose 304 stainless construction
• Choices—more than 20 component configurations in 2” or 3” sizes provide all possible options for any installation
• Compact—designed and constructed for tight spaces
• Listed—cUL listed for code compliance

Why do tank manufacturers like it?

• Convenient—weld mounting brackets on during tank fabrication
• Time saving—attach fill box when ready to ship or at installation site
• Why do distributors like it?
• Simple—use just one part number to order all the components in one complete package
• Reliable—factory assembled and tested by our company 

Why do distributors like it?

• Simple—use just one part number to order all the components in one complete package
• Reliable—factory assembled and tested by our company 

Why do end users like it?

• Functional—compact design yet sufficient work space
• Easy—simple to clean and maintain