Fermi Lab NuMI Project, Universities Research Associates
Batavia, IL
Type of Work: Heating and Air Conditioning, Process Piping
Architect/Engineer:
By Owner
Contract Amount: $4.3 million
When Fermi Lab designed a high-energy experiment to accelerate
protons into a neutrino beam, they knew it would generate a lot of
heat. "I would say that not only to this experiment but to the
operation of the accelerators generally, the piping is a very critical
part of the work, because so much of what we do requires cooling," Dr.
Dixon Bogert, one of the experiment's designers, said.
To keep its accelerator cool, Fermi Lab contracted IPS to
install piping throughout an underground tunnel to handle the cooling
load for the experiment. When the IPS crew arrived on the job, in
October 2002, the tunnel had already been bored. After some preliminary
work, they began piping the Low Conductivity Water (LCW) system and
carrier tunnel piping.
Material handling proved a special challenge
when working underground. All the pipe, equipment, tools
and supplies had to be lowered down shafts and then transported through
the tunnel to where it would be needed – before you even consider the
timing of when it would be needed! With limited access to cranes,
careful forethought, planning and stockpiling was necessary.
"When the building was going up the stocking period stopped,"
said IPS Piping Superintendent Frank Camasta. "You can't move pipe in
and out of here."
You can read the
JobScope feature story about the Fermi Lab project by clicking
here
(PDF/670K).
