160′ Column Lift for Placid Refining

Turner Industries Completes Lift of 160′ Column for Placid Refining

Location: Port Allen, Louisiana

Turner Industries’ Equipment Division was contracted to deliver and set a new Cracked Naphtha Splitter column for Placid Refining as part of a unit upgrade for compliance with the EPA. The column was approximately 160 feet in length, 10 feet in diameter at its base and weighed 171,827 pounds. The column was loaded onto 14 Lines of THP trailers at a local paint yard in Denham Springs, LA and transported 68 miles to Placid Refining in Port Allen, LA. The length of the column required the addition of 150-ton bolsters in order to navigate the twists and turns of the permitted route to site. 

After being delivered to site, the column was dressed out with all the necessary platforms, ladder cages and pipe supports which added an additional six feet to its diameter. The newly dressed column was transported on a PST/SL-E Goldhofer trailer to the alleyway next to the foundation on which it would later be set.

The alley way was long enough to accommodate the column’s expansive length, but it was not wide enough to fit the large 500-ton capacity crane required to upend it. Nearby the alleyway intersected another road in the plant that had enough space for the 440 Ton Crawler Crane with 236 feet of main boom and 23 feet of jib to be built with room to walk to the column’s foundation. Turner’s engineering team designed a custom tailing frame that was fabricated in house. The custom tailing frame mounted to one of Turner Industries Group’s PST/SL-E Goldhofer self-propelled trailers that would serve the function of a tailing crane. The column was bolted to the custom tailing frame that enabled the PST/SL-E Goldhofer to propel the column forward as the 440 Ton Crawler Crane reached over a live active process line to lift it into the air. Once the column was hanging in the vertical position; it was unbolted from the tailing frame. The 440 Ton Crawler then walked thirty feet to be in position to set the column on its foundation. This is one example that showcases Turner Industries Group Equipment ability to innovatively plan and execute a turnkey job that meets the clients needs in a safe, efficient and economical way.