The Red Hill complex consists of twenty 300,000 bbl underground storage tanks, three pipelines, and a pumping facility that was built between 1940 and 1945. The pipelines are located inside of an underground tunnel approximately 4.3 km (2.7 miles) long and 4.5 meters (15 feet) wide. This paper will discuss the project management and technical challenges for the metal loss inspection of the 813 mm (32-inch) diesel pipeline at Red Hill, FISC Pearl Harbor, HI. The pipeline has several "unpiggable" features such as 28 degree mitered bends, reduced valve sections and no launcher/receiver. Even though the pipeline is "above ground," it rests directly on over 300 supports and is encased in over twenty bulk-heads, each four feet wide. The paper will discuss the project phases of (1) integrity assessment method tool selection, (2) planning, (3) fabrication of components, (4) mobilization, (5) installation of components, (6) cleaning, (7) in-line inspection, (8) demobilization, and (9) analysis. Technical challenges that will be addressed in the paper are (1) specifying and locating valves and components, (2) handling and disposal of the off-spec fuel created during the pigging process, (3) working with large material and components in confined areas, (4) pump capacities and capabilities during the cleaning and smart pigging, and (5) project scheduling to meet the fleet demand at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
This project provided a thorough inline inspection of 3.4 km (2.1 miles) of the 813 mm (32-inch) Diesel pipeline from Red Hill to the pump house at Pearl Harbor using the latest in-line inspection ultrasonic technology. The inspection provided a complete, intensive assessment of the level of corrosion damage to the pipeline incurred over the last 62 years. Results are allowing the Navy to identify and repair trouble spots before a failure and facilitate long range planning of logistical fuel supply for the Pacific Theatre. The planning for this project started in January 2005 and was completed in June 2006.
The Red Hill Fuel Storage facility located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, provides the majority of the fuel for the entire Pacific Fleet. The facility was built into Red Hill between South Halawa Stream and Moanalua Stream during World War II to provide fuel for the Pacific theatre of operations and has been in continuous service since. The 20 Red Hill Storage tanks are connected to Pearl Harbor by pipelines stretching over three miles through a tunnel deep inside the Red Hill facility. The tanks store approximately 954,820 m3 (252 million gallons) of Diesel (F-76), JP-5 and JP-8, which are delivered to vessels at Sierra and Mike Docks, and Hotel Pier in Pearl Harbor. The Red Hill Fuel Storage facility is owned and operated by the Fleet Industrial Supply Center (FISC) Pearl Harbor. In 1995, the Red Hill Fuel Storage Facility was designated by the American Society of Engineers as a Nation Historic Civil Engineering Landmark (Figure 1). An internal integrity inspection has never been performed on these 62-year-old pipelines. The Department of Defense will typically conduct an Inline Inspection (ILI) of strategic or high-risk pipelines like the 813 mm (32-inch) Red Hill Pipeline.
