The world's second largest crawler crane last month was used to pick up and place a 508,000-lb. vacuum tower at the Marathon Petroleum Co. refinery in southwest Detroit, capping a massive two-year construction project aimed at increasing the plant's refining capacity.

Work at the plant brought in some 1,400 building trades workers at peak employment, said Marathon Maintenance Manager Pat Lysaght, but the Hardhat population is quickly dwindling as the project winds down this month. The only petroleum refinery in Michigan, the project will allow the plant's refining capacity to go from the current 75,000 barrels a day to about 105,000 barrels a day.

"It's been exhausting," Lysaght said. "But we got a lot accomplished." 

The work of the building trades has involved building foundations for new equipment, as well as installing new exchangers, pumps, vessels, insulation and electrical controls. With an investment of $300 million, this is easily the largest upgrade the Marathon refinery has ever seen. The end of the project necessitated a shutdown of the refinery for about 50 days.

Marathon said the expansion will provide more than 23,000 barrels per day (equivalent to one million gallons per day) of additional fuels to the Detroit market-area. Completion of the clean fuels project will also allow the refinery to produce the low-sulfur gasoline and ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2006.

The most intensively planned portion of the project was the importation of the crane and the Oct. 5 installation of the vacuum (or distillation) tower, which separates the different grades of petroleum products. The Manitowac 21,000 crane arrived in some two dozen pieces via semi-truck from its previous job in Tennessee. It took three weeks to assemble, was used for about three weeks, then took another two weeks to tear down.

The new vacuum tower was manufactured near Toronto and shipped via a Great Lakes freighter to docks on the Rouge River. A "multi-wheel transporter" brought the new tower to the job site.

Local 324 operator John Peffer sat at the crane's controls as the old 384,000-lb. vacuum tower was removed and when the new tower was installed. Peffer said he made sure to take a bathroom break before the new tower was set, because there would be a six-hour span in which he couldn't leave the crane's cab.

"We did some practice runs, and double-checked the level on the mats," Peffer said. "The crane is good for 630,000 lbs., so we were under capacity. Actually, the boilermaker signalmen did most of the work, and they did a good job. It was a big pick, but it was pretty easy."

Peffer, a nine-year operator, said the crane is "petty similar" to smaller M-series Manitowac models. He said the crane "traveled real rough" when it transported the vessel about 40 feet. It was then lifted about 200 feet into place.

Installing a new vacuum tower vessel provided an all-in-one fix that allowed for increased capacity at the plant and addressed shortcomings of the old tower. "It was a very smooth process," Lysaght said of the change-out.

With gasoline prices spiking to record levels last summer, U.S. refiners have been roundly criticized for not increasing capacity - there have been no new refineries built in the U.S. since 1976. This work, Lysaght said, moves Detroit Marathon refinery from a small to a medium size.

"This is the culmination of several years of work by hundreds of Marathon employees and contractors," said Gary R. Heminger, executive vice president of Marathon and president of Marathon Petroleum Company LLC. "We are in the final phase of the project and are eager to complete this construction, which not only provides additional supply of motor fuels, but also brings cleaner burning fuels to consumers in the Michigan area."

Marathon is the nation's fifth largest refiner with 948,000 barrels-per-day capacity in its seven-refinery system. The company serves the Midwest and Southeast as a petroleum products marketer with 95 light product and asphalt terminals and access to approximately 7,700 miles of pipeline.

OPERATING ENGINEER John Peffer of Local 324 controls a Manitowac 21,000 crane during an early-evening lift of a 508,000- lb. vacuum tower at the Marathon Petroleum Co. refinery in Detroit. The crane is the second largest in the U.S.

IT TOOK THREE weeks to assemble the Manitowac 21,000 series crane, which was set up to weigh 1.1 million lbs., including counterweights, at the Marathon project. Photos by Dale Volker