ALEXANDRIA UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

POST GRADUATE DEGREE

Pipeline Construction
By Eng. Ahmed Mohamed Kamel El-Said EL-Nahrawy

Introduction:
Pipeline construction process starts with initial planning and the entire construction process takes up to 17 to 18 months. Initial planning include determining the market need, specification of pipe and components, land acquisition, environmental assessment, land permitting, public consultation, pipeline design and route selection etc. The construction process not only covers the civil work to lay the pipeline, it also has to cover all the work related to the installation process of the field devices that will support remote operations. The main purpose of constructing the pipelines is to carry a variety of materials for residential, commercial and industrial needs. Pipelines construction phase begin after the route selection, environmental permitting, surveying, preparing the right of way, stringing the pipe, easements negotiations, and other pre construction phase have been accomplished. After this pipeline is carefully placed in the pre dug trench under waterways and roads, and if trenching is involved the trench is filled and post construction process begins. The whole process of pipeline construction has three different phases such as pre construction, construction and post construction. In addition, construction phase includes bending and joining the pipe, positioning and coating the pipelines, installing valves and fitting and backfilling the trench is done. High side and low side are two different types of installation which needs to keep in mind while determining the pipeline route and geography of the pipeline installation. There are various steps involved in pipeline construction process such as: Clearing, grading and trenching Stringing and welding pipe segments Depositing the pipeline Backfilling and Testing Restoring

Types of Pipelines Depending on its purpose, pipelines are of different types like gathering lines, transmission lines, distribution lines and feeder lines. Gathering pipe lines are the group of smaller interconnected pipelines forming complex networks and these lines travel short distances gathering products from wells and then move to other facilities. The purpose of these lines is the bringing of crude oil or natural gas from several nearby wells to a treatment plant. Transmission lines are also known as transportation pipeline having long diameters, moving products between cities, countries and even continents. These are energy highways, transporting materials across the international provinces or within the provinces. On the other hand distribution lines are composed of several interconnected pipelines with small diameters used to take the products to the final consumers and is used in local distribution companies to distribute the materials, whereas feeder lines move products from batteries, processing facilities and storage tanks in the transmission pipelines. These are used to distribute gas to homes and business downstream. In order to construct pipelines, environmental or climatic conditions must be considered which can affect the construction process like heat and cold both can impact the characteristics of the pipeline such as its flexibility and joints. It is necessary to plan first and consider all requirements and the things which can impact and then start the construction process so that without delay, project has been completed easily.