Babcock was awarded a contract to implement service line replacement as part of a greater Blast Furnace N5 reline project at Arcelor Mittal South Africa’s Newcastle Works. The project is expected to extend the life of the plant by 20 years.
Service line replacement
A specialist Babcock team executed the contract during a major plant shutdown from March 2014 to August 2014. The scope of work involved the removal and replacement of the following service lines:
Drinking water, compressed air, nitrogen, oxygen, cold blast, clean gas, coke oven gas, industrial water, main steam, steam, demineralised water, soft water, instrument air, Sasol and flare stack lines.
The replacement project was complex, in that all the different supply lines installed are worked on simultaneously within a limited period of time. This called for well-planned material procurement, work crew interfacing and overall site management to ensure compliance with ArcelorMittal’s safety protocols and Babcock’s SHERQ policies and procedures.
Interesting fact:
The work involved installing reticulation from 25 nominal bore furnace piping up to clean gas supply piping of 1500 nominal bore and included demolishing and removing all redundant piping.
