Although this complex project called for a full range of engineering disciplines, the most difficult challenge was beating the clock. We joined the project in April, charged with helping make it operational by the end of that year.
Rapid and extensive development in North Dakota’s Bakken Formation has presented a number of opportunities and challenges. One such challenge is to comply safely and efficiently with increasing regulations on truck transport of crude oil. Our client seeks to develop a gathering system around Watford City, N.D., with a connection to the Tesoro crude oil pipeline.
The Bakken formation constitutes one of the world’s most rapidly developing shale plays. MKEC was contracted to plan, design and engineer a unit train loading facility to allow our client to move crude oil to market. The finished facility needed to be capable of handling eight unit trains per week while accommodating the switching requirements for an adjacent grain elevator.
We were asked to design a three-span bridge to replace an existing outmoded 1931 single-span steel trestle bridge over a tributary to the Arkansas River in north-central Oklahoma. This included relocating a driveway at one end of the bridge.
We were asked to create an upscale development with dominant water features and view-out basements resulting in desirable lots that would sell in a down economy. All of this needed to be accomplished within a budget that would make economic sense for the developer.
