The project consists of the construction of a 5.4km welded steel gas pipeline, and a new Above Ground Installation (AGI) within the Glanbia Site in Belview and a tie-in and buried pig trap arrangement at the connection to the Great Island Pipeline in Ballinlaw, Co. Kilkenny. The pipeline route originates in Ballinlaw at the connection point to the Great Island Pipeline where a tee and valve were installed to facilitate the connection to the pipeline. From Ballinlaw the pipeline travels in a southerly direction towards the termination point at a new AGI in the Glanbia Plant. The route generally traversing agricultural land. The Glanbia site was under construction at the same time as the proposed pipeline.The pipeline is approximately 5.4km long, with a nominal diameter of 200mm. The design pressure of the pipeline is 85bar and the wall thickness is 11.91mm heavy wall and 7.11mm Standard wall. The AGI at Glanbia contained equipment to reduce the pressure of the gas from 85 to 19bar
As Principal Contractor Murphy were responsible for;
GNI requested that Murphy accelerate the Installation and Commissioning of the pipeline and AGI due to end user requirements. This reduced the construction period from 16 Weeks to 12 Weeks.
Murphy immediately mobilised extra crews and moved to a 7 day a week programme to ensure the new commissioning date would be met. Activities were carefully planned to ensure that no employee was asked to work excessive hours.
Murphy used a variety of construction techniques to overcome the challenges presented within the project namely; standard open cut trench and trenchless techniques.
The pipeline route involved the crossing of seven Roads, two railway lines and one river. The pipeline corridor spans 30 land owners and tenants.
The number of staff at peak involved, three pipe laying crews, one trenchless crossing crew and an AGI crew.
Tadpoles were discovered in a drain along the proposed route by Murphy on the initial ecological assessment.
In order to meet the accelerated programme Murphy Ireland utilised Directional Drilling Technique to install the pipe at this location.
Along the route, various ecological constraints were encountered including the presence of Japanese Knotweed and Bird Nests, which required very detailed planning and liaison with the appropriate regulatory bodies to ensure that all licences and permissions were sought. A number of route changes were proposed to reduce the impact on the environmentally sensitive areas affected by the pipeline.
Murphy achieved a score of 100% in all audits performed by GNI throughout the contract and were awarded all KPI bonuses relating to HSQE performance and programme.
