Telford based BAC Corrosion Control have been awarded a one million Euro contract to provide expertise and specialist materials to retrospectively fit cathodic protection to a section of the Great Man-Made River in Libya.
The contract, awarded by Energoinvest of Sarajevo and signed in early July is to carry out site survey works, installation supervision for the anticipated 2 year contract and to commission the system prior to providing maintenance services for a further 12 months.
The bulk of the contract value is to supply specialist components, which are due for delivery to site during 2003 and comprise control boxes, splice kits, test and survey equipment and electrical ancillaries.
The Great Man-Made River project, described as the “eigth wonder of the world” by the Libyans is a 4000 km pre-stressed cylinder concrete pipeline (PCCP) which will eventually bring 4 million cubic feet of water from the aquifers in Sarir, Kufra, Tazerbo and Fezzan in the southern Sahara desert to the coastal areas in the north where agriculture, industry and the majority of the population are located.
The section of the network that is to be protected under this contract runs approximately 200 km between the reservoirs located at Tazerbo and Sarir further north. The cathodic protection system is designed to protect the steel cylinder and prestressing wire in each of the 80 tonne 4.2 metre diameter pipe sections.
BAC have been supplying equipment for various sections of the project, now in it’s 5th phase since 1991.