But when winter is boss, it’s all about keeping workers safe from frostbite or worse. Conditions demanded that the project’s cold-weather plan be kicked into gear right after Thanksgiving, Greer said.
“We’ve set up a number of heated huts throughout the work area and allow a lot more frequent breaks. We can take snow, and we can take wind, and we can take cold; but the combination of all three is pretty tough,” he said.
Besides the huts, another focus of the cold weather plan is ensuring safe access to the site and equipment, so constant snow removal is a high priority.
He said the storm days and efficiencies will either be made up with additional weekend hours as weather permits, or extended to the far end of the project schedule.
“We’ll deal with it as it comes,” he said.
There are 900 workers at the site — a lot of bodies to keep track of in extreme conditions.
Crane operations by Borsheim Crane Service Inc. are suspended in winds in excess of 20 mph, and that’s reduced the number of days that sheets of siding can be swung into place on the urea process buildings. As a consequence, the buildings continue to be more exposed than originally planned.
Work is continuing, and Greer said the vertical support columns for the gigantic urea storage building will be set into place this week. This is the second time the 210- by 700-foot building is being erected; the original one was twisted and compromised beyond salvage during a severe summer storm.
Despite the weather-related delays, the last major piece of equipment — a sprayer air fan for the urea granulation process — was received and installed this month.
Construction crews will be on holiday Dec. 23 through Jan. 2, while managers use the time to fine-tune the completion plan and discuss the dynamic testing that will be required to commission each equipment component.
The plant is expected to be completed by the end of June, and Basin is still discussing how to proceed with actual production, since the reconstructed storage building won’t be done until early 2018.
Work on the urea project started in 2014.
(Reach Lauren Donovan at 701-220-5511 or [email protected].)
