Marine Oil Terminal: Keeping Up with Codes

PERI Delivers Flexible Formwork Solutions for Los Angeles Oil Terminal

The Port of Los Angeles includes seven liquid petroleum build terminals comprising an area of more than 114 acres. The demand for production, transferring, processing, and storage of oil in the greater Los Angeles area drove stakeholders to ultimately invest in an upgrade to the Marine Oil Terminal and Wharf. 

To comply with health, safety, and environmental regulations, the project called for renovations that would expand the existing terminal, including a replacement of the existing timber wharf with a new concrete wharf.

The fluctuating tide of the water table presented a challenge when it came to the new concrete pour, so it was critical that the formwork sit primarily above water levels. The project team sought a formwork solution that would support the concrete platforms and mitigate the load of the concrete. 

PERI USA provided pre-assembly of the soffit tables and delivered unique, fully rentable falsework systems that would support the concrete pour of the wharf and minimize the customer’s labor requirements. 

“We preassembled all the systems ahead of time, which mitigated the risk of any mis-assembly on the jobsite,” said German Ordonez, sales representative at PERI USA. “This project revolved around our engineering team working with the customer to address any site condition changes such as pile installations outside the expected tolerance, to make sure that our falsework design would still function as needed.”

Custom Designed Systems

The team selected PERI’S VARIOKIT RCS Truss System for the falsework to pour the main concrete platform. The system offers superior high load-bearing capacity of up to 3.000 kNm at a relatively low dead weight. The system has an accelerated construction process through reduced number of trusses, with the ability to adjust trust lengths and span widths. 

VPS IPE Beams were used as the main carrier beams that sat on the support brackets to carry the RCS truss falsework. The IPE Beams offer customers a heavy-duty steel beam member that is both modular and rentable. The IPE Beams gives customers a high degree of flexibility for falsework applications such as marine platforms and for Pier Cap VPS Soffit Systems used in bridge construction.

GT24 Soffit Tables with SRU Walers were selected as the modular soffit on top of the falsework. PERI’s GT24 Soffit Tables feature pre-assembled slab members with steel walers as the primary beams. With the installation of guardrail posts, the slab table is transformed into an edge table without having to change the position of the props.

PERI UP Flex Modular Scaffolding was used for added shoring on the mooring dolphin structures throughout the project. PERI UP’s flexibility met the demands for the desired design. The system is designed with a wide range of ledgers and decks with varying lengths, allowing the decking to change direction during installation and adapt to project-specific geometries. MULTIPROP aluminum slab props were also used in coordination with PERI UP as shoring support for beams and side protection on the construction site. 

Open for Operation
Concrete construction utilizing PERI’s solutions began in December of 2022 and was completed in April 2023.