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Offshore/Gulf of Mexico Report other way around. To Vigue, it was a perfect fit. He just had to persuade the rigs' owners that Cianbro was the right company for the job. That reportedly wasn't easy, but in the end Petrodrill took a chance on the Maine-based company. Banking on the workforce flexibility, Cianbro put together a plan that enabled their work- ers to switch from mill construction to shipfitting without missing a beat. "Cianbro has decades of experience in pulp and paper mills and other manufac- turing facilities," said Alan Burton, Cianbro's director of safety and human resources. "The skills our people use every day such as welding, pipefitting, cabling, and more were exactly what we needed to complete the rigs." Before striking any shipfitting deals. Cianbro had to have a place to work on them. The company leased what would become Portland Ocean Terminal, a vacant repair facility in Portland, Maine, to serve as its shipyard for this uncon- ventional project. The facility, which once housed a dry dock, was uniquely qualified by its deepwater basin-a rare find on the East Coast and an important key to securing this project. To prepare the site, the company performed exten- sive renovations, including a rebuild of a 140.000-sq.-ft. warehouse with 87,000 sq. ft. of office space on the second floor. The city of Portland benefits from the arrangement too. In addition to the mil- lion dollars a year they received for leas- ing the terminal to Cianbro and the improvements the company made to the facilities, Portland has used the project as the centerpiece of an effort to revital- ize the shipyard component of its work- ing waterfront. An active commercial shipyard is an important asset to any maritime community, and Cianbro's has provided hundreds of jobs beyond the company's own crews. "Cianbro has helped lay the founda- tion for future marine industrial projects at this facility," said Jeffery Monroe, director of ports and transportation for the city of Portland. "We believed in Cianbro's ability and have worked in partnership with them. These rigs repre- sent possibilities for future projects." After the work site was prepared, the real fun began. The incomplete rigs, each still in two components — a set of pontoons with columns and a matching deck box — were towed and barged to Portland from their original construction sites on the Gulf of Mexico. Once there, the football-field-sized deck boxes had to be joined to the rigs' immense pon- toon structures in a delicate operation called a floatover. With the rigs' basic structures com- plete, the Cianbro crew started work. Ductwork, bulkheads, insulation, mil- lions of feet of wire and pipe-all the mil- lions of things, big and small, that makes a ship a ship rather than just a big chunk of hollow steel-had to be fitted and installed. At the project's peak, more than a thousand people were work- ing on the two, giant, 12,000-ton plat- forms. All told, about 850 Cianbro workers were employed on the project, with the balance of the workforce made up of workers for various subcontrac- tors. Less than two years after arriving in Portland in pieces. Cianbro handed over the second completed rig to Petrodrill. Dave Leavitt, Cianbro's senior project manager, said, "These have been a very interesting and exciting two years for Cianbro. Our company has taken on and met significant challenges over our 55-year history. 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ELECTRONIC MARINE SYSTEMS, INC. 800 Ferndale Place Rahway, NJ 07065 732.382.4344 732.388.5111 fax emsmarcon@aol.com e-mail http://www.emsmarcon.com Circle 254 on Reader Service Card Circle 221 on Reader Service Card July 2004 27
