The short answer
The pipework goes in early. Fire mains and suppression are first, before commissioning can start, so the pipework contractor is often on site ahead of the other trades. Process lines follow as the buildings and the steelwork come up, fabricated to drawings off site and run on site to suit whoever is working around them.
The pipework starts before the buildings are finished
Buried fire mains go in while the ground is still open, which puts the pipework crew on site alongside the groundworks rather than after them. The Bermuda photographs show the main bedded on timber bearers down a shored trench with the plant still going up behind it. Anything that has to be buried is sequenced against the civils, not against the building programme.
Fire mains before commissioning
Nothing on a plant can be commissioned until the fire protection is in, so the fire mains, hydrants, hose connection points and suppressant systems come first. At Discovery Park in Sandwich, KBVI was on site before any other work could start. On BELCO in Bermuda the same order applied: every fire main on the site, then the external hydrants, the internal hose points and the suppressant sets on the electrical systems and the transformers.
Process lines while everyone else is working
Once the buildings and the steelwork are up, the process lines thread through them, and that is where the pipework package overlaps every other trade. Spools are fabricated to drawings off site so that time on site is spent installing, and the rest is run on site to fit what has actually been built. At Discovery Park that came to ammonia, demin water, cooling water, steam, oil, hydraulic and argon fire suppressant lines, over two years.
What it means for the programme
The pipework contractor is usually one of the first on and one of the last off, because the plant cannot start up until the lines are in. Placing the package early, with drawings and a programme, is what lets the fabrication happen in advance rather than in the way of the other trades.
- 01Buried mains with the groundworks, while the trenches are open
- 02Fire mains, hydrants and suppressant systems before commissioning
- 03Process lines through the buildings as the steelwork allows
- 04Prefabrication off site so the site time is installation
- 05On the record: Discovery Park 2017 and BELCO 2019, both for BWSC
When should the pipework package be placed?
Early enough for the contractor to survey, take off the line list and fabricate before site access opens. On both power station builds on the record KBVI was on site at the start rather than brought in partway through.
Can you work alongside the other trades on a live construction site?
Yes. Discovery Park ran for two years with KBVI working through the plant while the build went on around it.
