Futureproofing ports with corrosion control

By David Edelman,
Project Engineer at Queensland Sugar Limited

MAINTAINING MAINTENANCE

While Lucinda Wharf isn’t QSL’s busiest, it is definitely the largest, notes David Edelman , Project Engineer at Queensland Sugar. David, who helps look after not only Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal, but all six of QSL’s terminals, works on major maintenance and asset management along with the construction of new infrastructure.

Ahead of the 9th Annual Coast & Marine Structures 2017 conference, David Edelman explores how his team are using innovative and cost-effective corrosion control methods to extend the life of the Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal by over 50 years!

“With a 5.7 kilometre long jetty, and a wharf running over 200 metres in length and comprising of over 850 piles, Lucinda Wharf, from a coastal structures point of view, is just a very, very large structure, and by far our most interesting” says David.

He continues; “Lucinda was built in 1976, nowadays it would be near impossible to get environmental approval for a similar structure in the Great Barrier Reef marine park, and very difficult to do any major construction or modification there.

In that sense futureproofing of Lucinda is of the utmost importance. We need to keep the structure in really good condition by not taking any maintenance shortcuts and upgrading it incrementally to meet modern safety and environmental standards. We can’t get ourselves stuck in a position where we’d need to do a major structural rebuild because we may never get approval for it, let alone cover the cost of such works.”

“We’re not doing anything revolutionary when it comes to innovation. It’s more just a combination of different techniques and our focus on industry best practice.”
– David Edelman

INNOVATION – Efficient & Inexpensive Corrosion Control

1) PETROLATUM TAPE
“We’ve always been an early adopter of petrolatum tape, but now we’re using it much more extensively – we’re now wrapping each pile in petrolatum tape then adding jackets to protect the tape from the elements. This system protects the piles from corrosion for around 30 years. Previously we controlled corrosion by painting each pile with a traditional paint coating, which lasts about 10 years. By moving to the tape and jacket system, we expect to achieve significant cost savings and longer term corrosion protection. This method also eliminates many of the environmental and health hazards resulting from removal of old paint coatings.”

2) ENGINEERING CAPACITY DATA
“We’ve been using engineering structural capacity investigations and data to link with our asset condition reports to create a risk based conditions assessment. This ultimately helps us prioritise our maintenance work. So instead of simply repairing everything with corrosion damage we use the data to prioritise maintenance decisions based on urgency and cost. While there was an initial monetary outlay for the investigation software, in the long run it does save us money.”

3) INNOVATIVE ACCESS METHODOLOGY
“We’re currently completing the modification of an innovative underbridge access unit at the moment. Besides increasing maintenance efficiency and staff safety through ease of access, the unit will also drastically bring down our access costs, which add up to a lot of money over the long term.”

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE – Long-term Future Proofing

“The methods that we implement, the maintenance techniques we use and the improvements that we do to the wharf, we’re not doing them to add another ten years to the life of the asset – we’re only ever looking at the long term future of the wharf.

Lucinda’s original wharf design has served the industry very well, and the terminal has capacity to handle more vessels. So future proofing, from the point of view of Lucinda, has less to do with coping with ever increasing vessel size, and more to do with environmental responsibilities and the cost of maintaining such a large structure.

Being in the Great Barrier Reef marine park means major construction and retrofitting in future may not be an option due to the risk to the natural environment from construction activities. Instead we need to look at incremental upgrades that will extend the life of the wharf and improve personnel safety, while still meeting environmental standards. I guess the key challenge for a facility like Lucinda is really the cost of keeping it, maintaining it, and upgrading it. We work at overcoming this by focusing on efficiency. At the Lucinda terminal everything comes in multiples there’s over 850 piles and 280 conveyor gallery spans so any investment in new techniques has a potentially huge payback, as any savings made can be multiplied so many times,” concludes David.

FACTS & FIGURES
• Queensland Sugar Ltd operates 6 bulk sugar terminals; Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Bundaberg, Mourilyan and Lucinda.
• 4.2 Million tonnes of raw sugar was handled by Queensland Sugar Ltd. in the last financial year.
• At 5.7km long, the Lucinda jetty is the longest in the southern hemisphere, and one of the longest in the world.
• Lucinda Wharf began operations in 1976. It was initially only designed with a 25 year economic design life in mind.
• Lucinda Wharf handles 1520 ships per year, up to 75,000 Deadweight tonnes.

ABOUT DAVID EDELMAN, PROJECT ENGINEER, QSL

David is a project engineer at Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL), managing a diverse range of major maintenance and capital projects across Queensland’s six major sugar export terminals. Queensland Sugar Limited’s (QSL) Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal is one of the largest and most efficient bulk sugar terminal operators in the world.
As part of this role, he has been responsible for the monitoring, repair and protection of concrete and steel maritime structures such as wharves, shiploaders and conveyor galleries. Working within a limited budget, gaining cost efficiencies and long term protection, while ensuring safety of workers, has been a key priority of this work.
Prior to this role, David has worked as a consultant mechanical engineer designing or upgrading industrial equipment and structures such as stackers, rail wagons, mining trucks and shiploaders. This has given him a solid understanding of the effects of corrosion on the integrity of a structure, and the need for appropriate monitoring and protection techniques.

Learn more about David…

THE 9TH ANNUAL COAST AND MARINE STRUCTURES 2017 CONFERENCE

David Edelman, Project Engineer at QSL , will explore in further detail about the corrosion control strategies used to successfully extend the life of the Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal at 9th Annual Coast & Marine Structures 2017 !

Attend the event on March 21st – 22nd in Brisbane, Australia to hear from over 16 local and international speakers including Port of Hastings, Port Authority of NSW, Indonesia Port Corporation, Ausenco, Aspec Engineering, GHD, and more about industry best practice strategies for planning, design, development, maintenance and futureproofing your port and coastal assets.

View the agenda to see the full speaker line up, session topics and more, or visit the website for more information.

The Industry Contribution is a new section in which maritime companies share their project endeavors or analyses. Please contact us at [email protected] for inquiries.