CALIFORNIA REPLACEMENT EMPLOYS SPECIAL COATING, CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES

Mobil Oil Corporation installed a single 16-in. pipeline, specially coated for heated crude oil, in place of a line which had parts that were more than half a century old and which changed diameter several times. The line's coating (fusion bonded epoxy with a topcoat of a chemically modified polypropylene) required almost 15 years of research and development. The pipeline was laid in narrower than usual trenches under and along busy streets of several Southern California urban areas, and the project survived a determined legal challenge. This article provides further information on the original pipeline, the special coating of the new line, the street work, and the legal skirmishes.