Spread over roughly 50 acres in North Dakota’s Bakken region, with enough piping to keep 65 welders working at once, the plant expansion was enormous. The work performed by Braun Intertec, which took place over nearly seven years, was as comprehensive as it was relentless. Like most work in the Bakken, our employees often worked in shifts 16 to 24 hours a day performing nondestructive examination (NDE), construction materials testing (CMT), and various Quality Assurance (QA) tasks. Even in times when the work was not nonstop, our team was readily on call.
The project began with large-scale geotechnical engineering and soil testing resulting in almost a year and a half of extensive drilling, coring and thousands of sample tests to assess the backfill.
Our CMT group tested the concrete both at the batch plant where it was produced and at the job site as it was poured. Braun Intertec employees were responsible for testing concrete to see if it made the grade or if it needed to be rejected for being outside of project specifications.
The NDE team performed radiography (X-ray), magnetic particle and liquid penetrant inspections on thousands of welds to confirm that they met project specification and code requirements. The team worked closely with Hess quality control to see that the welding inspections were completed and there were no weld imperfections. Positive Material Inspection (PMI) and Brinnel Hardness tests verified that the correct welding consumables and pipe material were installed. One key aspect to all of this research and testing was that Braun Intertec seamlessly integrated Hess’ QA program with their own, checking to confirm that each company’s requirements were satisfied. In time, Hess came to rely on our QA team lead as the on-location expert about the job site and the plant.
