PRCI and NACE Sign a Memorandum of Understanding

Building further on a long-standing relationship between PRCI (Pipeline Research Council, Inc.) and NACE International, the two organizations have executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to foster activities that will serve their common interests in developing and disseminating technical information related to corrosion on energy pipelines. THE MOU also provides a framework for working cooperatively to advance these goals for the mutual benefit of their memberships. The MOU formalizes this important relationship with one of the primary standards development organizations that utilizes and applies PRCI's corrosion research results in developing the standards for integrity management of pipeline systems.

From the PRCI Newsletter Throughput Volume 4, Issue 1

Hoax Email - Dial Before You Dig

There is an email going around, your Corrosion Blog editor has received it three times now, called Dial Before You Dig. The email is now discussed on the extremely useful and entertaining "fact-checking" urban legends website snopes.com here. Public awareness of the dangers of third-party damage to pipelines is beneficial but spreading false tales is not. If you receive this email, I suggest that you do not forward it and reply to the sender letting them know that the email is a hoax, with the link to the snopes site (or this post).

The email contains a Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow named Dial_Before_You_Dig.pps.

Dial Before You Dig
This happened in America. It’s a good reason why you should dial before you dig…… The following pictures are a result of a worker on a farm using a post hole digger - he hit an underground, high-pressure gas main. He took out 2 homes, associated sheds and vehicles. They never found the man.

The remainder of the slideshow is pictures showing the devastation of a pipeline explosion. The pictures are from an actual pipeline explosion that happened in "America", but not as the result of a man with a post hole digger. The photographs are actually from a natural gas transmission failure near Appomattox, Virginia in September 2008 caused by external corrosion. There were some minor injuries but fortunately no one was killed.

Corrosion Results in Electrocution on Navy Ship

The Navy has ordered the inspection all electrical enclosures aboard every ship in its fleet after the Nov. 28 electrocution of a sailor aboard the Rentz, a San Diego-based frigate currently deployed in the Persian Gulf. The order — issued jointly by the Virginia-based Naval Sea Systems and the San Diego-based Naval Surface Forces commands — suggests that hidden corrosion on a hinge attached to an electrical enclosure may have played a role.

From The San Diego Union-Tribune. Also, see the Navy Times.

Plans on Schedule for First New Refinery in U.S. since 1970's

From Energy Pipeline News:

The US currently has 150 existing refineries, 141 operating with nine idle. Hyperion Resources began construction of the nation's first new oil refinery since 1976 on 3,800 acres of farmland near Elk Point, South Dakota.

The Dallas-based developers say that they plan to get shovels into the ground in 2011, and that Hyperion will be refining Canadian tar sands crude into gasoline and diesel by 2015.

Opposition groups such as Save Union County and the Sierra Club plan to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to step in and review concerns about air permits.

CP and the World's Tallest Building

Burj Khalifa (formerly known as Burj Dubai), the recently opened skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is the tallest man-made structure ever built, at 828 m (2,717 ft).

The superstructure is supported by a large reinforced concrete mat, which is in turn supported by bored reinforced concrete piles. The design was based on extensive geotechnical and seismic studies. The mat is 3.7 meters thick, and was constructed in four separate pours totaling 12,500 cubic meters of concrete. The 1.5 meter diameter x 43 meter long piles represent the largest and longest piles conventionally available in the region. A high density, low permeability concrete was used in the foundations, as well as a cathodic protection system under the mat, to minimize any detrimental effects form corrosive chemicals in local ground water.

From the Burj Khalifa website.

Bridge Closed Permanently Because of Extensive Corrosion

The Cline Avenue bridge (in northwest Indiana) from Calumet Avenue in Hammond to Michigan Avenue in East Chicago that's been shut down since last month will remain closed permanently. The Indiana Department of Transportation announced today that the Cline Avenue bridge will not be repaired or re-built.

From ABC 7 News Chicago.

See here for original blog post on The Corrosion Blog.