Compressor Station Upgrade

SSOE’s design eliminated two underground tie-points and piping and saved $60,000 in engineering and construction.

TransCanada sought to update its aging 9,000+ mile ANR natural gas pipeline system to maintain its reliability, preventing any potential system failures. As a part of this process, the company’s engineers documented system issues at their compressor stations and then contracted SSOE to start upgrades at six compressor stations.

In a two-phase approach, we performed field analysis, defined a preliminary scope (Phase I), created detailed design packages, and provided construction support (Phase II). Maintaining a strict schedule, one site visit was conducted per station. Field investigation time was maximized by utilizing hand held laser scanners. Upon field analysis completion, design differences were discovered in each stations’ systems.

Customizing a system design for each compressor station doubled our scope of work, and the outdated drawings from ANR impeded the process. Despite these obstacles, the schedule could not change, and we coordinated efforts among multiple offices in the U.S. and India to work on the design packages.

Creating almost 1,000 preliminary drawings during the scope definition phase, we finalized the work scopes and launched into Phase II. The final construction packages consisted of scope drawings and demolitions drawings (538 total), design documents, equipment submittals, and work scopes.

During Phase II, SSOE provided construction support and modified the old ANR drawings to bring them up to TransCanada’s current CAD standards. The entire project was completed on schedule.