Safety Milestone Reached by AltairStrickland During BP Texas City Turnaround Work

April 27, 2011

AltairStrickland, a process plant turnaround (TAR) engineering, management and maintenance firm, said it recently set a major safety milestone as part of its 2011 turnaround work at BP’s Texas City refinery.

As of March 20, more than 1mn (1,078,437) work hours had been completed with zero recorded injuries, the company said, representing the largest-ever time period in which AltairStrickland has gone injury free.

It is equivalent to 500 workers going one year with no recordable injury, the company said.

From late December 2010 to March 28, AltairStrickland hired more than 1,000 craft employees. The pre-mobilization preparation was a 4-5 day process including background screening, respiratory and medical evaluations, substance screening and hair follicle testing, the company said.

Safety training often exceeded 16 hours per person and included computer based training (CBT) conducted at AltairStrickland’s ACE training center and at the Safety Council of Texas City (SCTC). Safety leadership concepts were delivered via classroom and CBT training modules for crafts, foremen, superintendents, project managers and safety specialists.

Introducing AltairStrickland Consulting Services

January 01, 2011

Owners and operators around the world seek our services because we can save them both downtime and execution costs. Our specialized problem solving addresses such issues as:

Budget Conception
Execution Planning
Cold Eyes Reviews
CAD-CAM Modeling
Lifting & Rigging Plans
Project Constructability Analysis
Liaison between EPC & Owner/Operator
Scope Preparation
Laser Alignment
Shop Verifications

We also can help you make key or difficult decisions and supplement your project team with scheduling, planning, cost control and more.

Key Team Members

JIM ROBINSON
Jim Robinson, President of AltairStrickland Consulting Services, earned his mechanical engineering degree from Louisiana Tech. He founded Altair Construction in 1980 and merged with Wilson Strickland in 1986 to form what is now known as AltairStrickland. Robinson is well known throughout the industry for his experience and innovative problem solving.

JAMES MERRILL
James Merrill, Vice President of AltairStrickland Consulting Services, received his chemical engineering degree from the University of Illinois. He began his career as a field engineer for Chicago Bridge & Iron in 1979. He has since been involved with numerous FCCU and Delayed Coker revamps. He joined AltairStrickland in 2010.

The Support Teams

KENNETH BECKEMEYER has over 35 years experience and is a respected expert in FCCU and Coker revamp execution.

PHILLIP SAIN has been with AltairStrickland for 30 years and is esteemed by his colleagues for his FCCU revamp expertise.

GLENN CARPENTER is a project manager with extensive Delayed Coker Turnaround and revamp experience.

CUSTER CRAWFORD has been with AltairStrickland for 25 years and is known for his skillful experience in managing turnarounds.

Learn more about the depth of our services we can help you put your project on the road to success. Phone 281-478-6200 or e-mail wstrickland@altairstrickland.com

Amazing Feat; AltairStrickland Replaces Coke Chutes During Cycle Changes

November 12, 2010

Saves five days and many man-hours!

AltairStrickland’s team of coker experts recently planned, managed and executed two coke drum chute replacements for a client in Southeast Texas. Remarkably, the chute replacements were done during the cycle changes for the Coker unit. This required careful planning and constructability reviews to make sure that everything proceeded perfectly.

The team began by fabricating the chutes on-site and utilized welders and fitters that were already there performing pre-turnaround work for a planned Coker turnaround.

The client and AltairStrickland’s Ken Beckemeyer joined forces to look for ways to reduce the turnaround schedule. They found that by installing two of the three chutes during a ‘mini outage’ that extended the cycle time to 30-hours, they could replace two chutes and cut five days from the originally scheduled thirty-day turnaround. They also found that they could save money by using the on-site craftspeople and eliminate ten personnel per shift during the turnaround.

The chutes were set in place using a rigging/lifting plan developed by the AltairStrickland team of supervisors and our home office engineering support. The plan was to use machine rollers to skate the pieces in up under the structure. Although it was a very tight space the project proceeded without incident. Next, the chutes were lifted into place using air chain hoists. Finally, the chutes were welded into place and beam supports were installed. The project was done during two thirty-hour drum change cycles with zero incidents.