HAZIRA PORT PHASE‐IV: NOTE ON BITUMEN LINE 

AHPPL PHASE IV: Note on Bitumen Line

PROJECT

OWNER

EPC CONTRACTOR Howe Engineering Projects (India) Pvt.Ltd.

CONTRATOR/
CONSULTANT’S
Hazira Phase IV - Road crossing of dock lines
TITLE OF DOCUMENT

CLIENT
DOCUMENT NO. Rev.
No.
CONTRATOR/
CONSULTANT’S DOCUMENT NO.

PREPARED CHECKED APPROVED

REV. NO. DATE DESCRIPTION
Init. Sign Init. Sign Init. Sign

21/02/2022 SC SP SP

This Document is the property of HEPIPL. It should not be used, copied or reproduced without their written Permission.

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 Note on Road crossing of Bitumen and other dock lines

The Scope Document reads:

“All Dock line and transfer line should be underground in culvert at road
crossing, Culvert must have water proofing walls from all sides with safe
height so rainwater from surrounding should not enter in Culvert and Culvert
should be covered may be FRP or pre-coated steel sheet, so rainwater
doesn't enter. There should be proper storm water drain made to take
surrounded rainwater to nearby drain with proper slop in no case water
should be enter in this culvert and spoil heat traced and insulated dock line
mainly bitumen.”

The dock lines coming to the plant has to cross a road which is about 60 M
wide.
There are two ways of making the road crossings.

i) Above head
ii) Under ground

The first option means taking the line at least at a BOP elevation of 8M from
road surface. This option if exercised with 5D bends eliminates the problem of
pig getting stuck at bends.

The underground proposition suggested in the Scope Document (quoted

above) talks of culvert. However, culvert is good or not requires deliberation.
Alternative option is getting the pipe buried.

There are two means of taking a line underground

i) Through culvert
ii) Buried (with or without casing pipe)

Of these lines the Bitumen line will be insulated and heat traced and hence
most critical’. So, we will take the Bitumen line as the basis of the crossing
design.

As said the bitumen lines are hot insulated and heat traced. Our experience
with similar lines in Kattupalli where lines are running through culvert prompts
us to say that culvert is not the correct option for heat traced lines running at
a level below the FGL. Water is bound to find its way into a culvert. In
Kattupalli the problem is faced severely and with ingress of water the HT
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 system is tripping. While pumps are provided to clean up the water the
operations are hampered anyway.

Below is a snap from Kattupalli

drawing. The red hexagon
marks the pipe entry into
culvert.

Buried pipe option Arrangement at Kattupalli

Buried pipes are generally cathodically protected for prevention from

corrosion. However, for pipes with heat tracing and insulation cathodic
protection is not required. Since these dock lines are supposed to cross the
roads underground there is no point in taking them on racks, they will be
rather taken on sleepers with BOP at 150mm elevation from FGL.

The arrangement below is from phase 17 of Mundra.

We find lines with HT taken directly under the road without any casing pipe.
While this is acceptable, we propose to maintain at least a gap of 1500mm
from bottom of road to top of pipe (here pipe + insulation etc.). This is
because of the fact that with a depth of 1500mm the mechanical load on the
road is not transferred to the pipe.

Arrangement at Mundra

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 However, by putting hume pipe as casing pipe we can reduce the depth of
pipe to 1000mm from 1500mm. Reducing the depth further, though practised
in many places is not advised.

The laying is to be essentially by open cut method hence shut down of roads
will be necessary. The bends are all of 3D radius and 5D if space permits.

A proposed arrangement if u/g routing is adopted is given in annexure. (A3

Drawing attached separately)

The pipes as seen enter the soil at 45 degrees and come out similarly. This
will facilitate pig movement and also will reduce pressure drop to a good
extent.

The annular space between the casing and carrier pipe is ideally filled by
sand and the ends of casing pipe closed by plates. Alternatively, spacers can
be used to keep the casing and carrier pipes concentric.

Casing pipe and carrier pipe with spacers

The insulation for the buried section will be done with the help of pre-formed
blocks and the cost of insulation will be ~20% higher than conventional hot
insulation.

The HT applied should also be of the quality that does not require any
inspection as any type of inspection is not possible.
This above ground method has several advantages like
a) Easier to construct
b) Easier to maintain HT system (in u/g system the HT system cannot be
inspected.)
c) Cheaper cost for insulation and heat tracing.

Disadvantages of taking line above ground

a) Higher pigging pressure

Annexure – I
A3 Sheet with proposed arrangement
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