POLYTECNA HARRIS
Date: Jan. 76 - Dec. 83
Position: Data Processing (DP) manager and project engineer
Polytecna Harris was an engineering consulting company (with more than 100 employees) and three main areas of specialisation:
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Ports
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Petrochemical Marine Facilities
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Transports studies
From 1979 to 1983 I was responsible of the company Data Processing Department with two development areas:
information system of the company (administration, cost control, payroll etc.)
technical and scientific computer applications
The DP department had in charge an HP1000 and a UNISYS S80 machine and was composed by 2 programmers plus temporary staff.
My previous activity as project engineer was dedicated to the following projects:
Italy - GIOIA TAURO HARBOUR
The Cassa per il Mezzogiorno financed the construction of the Gioia Tauro Harbour (2500m quays with 18 to 22m depths for 100.000 DWT bulk carriers) originally dedicated to an adjacent steel factory. POLYTECNA HARRIS was in charge of the technical assistance to the construction management unit, and my activity was dedicated to the
structural analysis and verification of the quay structures under seismic loads (FEM methods) ant to assess the stability in seismic conditions of the harbour entrance breakwaters which were located in depths up to 35 m over sands layers.
Ruwais/United Kingdom - ADNOC RUWAIS REFINERY
POLYTECNA HARRIS undertook the construction design of the Ruwais refinery marine facilities (two jetties of 1500 m length, loading equipment, storage tanks etc.). My assignment was the analysis of the construction phases and operations, the planning of the sequences and the consequent PERT-CPM study.
The job was performed using Det Norske Veritas OPTIMA computer program and, after the ADNOC approval and the beginning of the construction works, a monthly update was issued until the end of the works.
Italy - VENEZIA
In the context of the studies aimed to the protection of Venice periodic flooding, POLYTECNA HARRIS was in charge to design mobile dams to regulate the open sea flow through the Venice lagoon entrances.
The operation of such gates has a direct consequence on the ship traffic flow between the Adriatic sea and the Venice and Marghera harbours.
My assignment was to investigate the interference between the gates and the port operations; the work has been carried on with an analysis of existing and forecasted ship traffic, the study of the elementary operations for ships handling and the construction of a simulation model using GPSS (General Purpose System Simulator). The model was used to assess the impacts and the effectiveness of the different alternatives for the gates under design.
Italy - S.EUFEMIA HARBOUR
The objective of the project financed by the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, was to assess the feasibility of an harbour in the S.Eufemia gulf. The proposed harbour had to serve the existing and planned industries of the inshore industrial area that needed to ship mainly pallets and bulk dry export goods. No other port in the neighbourhoods was recommended for this traffic load due to distances and operating costs. The proposed structure was an “island” harbour with 1000 m length breakwater in 25 m water depth parallel to the coastline and connected to the shore with a 2000 m jetty. The assignment was to verify from a hydraulic point of view the feasibility of the structure.
The study has been developed with computer simulation of the behaviour of the harbour in different meteorological conditions (probabilistic significant wave height analysis and assessment of wind and currents regimes in the gulf up to 3 miles around the proposed site, production of contour maps of swh and return ratio) in order to assess also the operability of the different zones in the lee of the breakwater in terms of residual wave heights. A physical model has been also realised in the ESTRAMED laboratories in order to verify the computer results and to study the interaction of the structure with the sandy littoral.
Italy - SARAS TERMINAL
A traffic study has been conducted to design the new marine facilities of the SARAS refinery plant; the two proposed jetties were designed according to the traffic (existing and forecast) analysis and the load/discharge equipment (pumping stations, pipelines on the jetties and on shore storages) were dimensioned according to an operation simulation study.
Significant wave height and design height for ships operations limits has been defined according to KNMI historical data and wind and fetch probabilistic wave generation analisis.
The study was aimed at the optimisation of the operation costs by reducing the waiting times of the 50000 to 150000 DWT ships expected to call at the refinery terminal.
Algeria - EL KROUB
The El Kroub Oil Storage, designed and constructed in Algeria by SNAMPROGETTI, was linked to the country railroad network by a one-lane railway. In the Storage area a specialised automated loading station with exchange facilities has been built.
The assignment was to test and certify the construction and the equipment including the on site verification of the terminal operations and to control the execution of the works according to the client (SONATRACH) terms of reference.
Italy - TORVALDALIGA POWER PLANT
The Italian Electricity Company ENEL, has built this 7500MW power plant in the littoral coast of Civitavecchia (Rome). POLYTECNA HARRIS was in charge of the design and of the construction supervision of the sea water intake of the power plant. The intake concrete structure (approx. 30x20 base and 15m height caisson) has been built in a basin on the coastline and subsequently launched and towed to the final underwater position. My assignment has been the environmental load definition (significant wave height, design wave, currents and wind regime), hydraulic design of the intake, the hydraulic stability of the structure during the floating, towing and final positioning operations, the planning of the sequence of the launch phases.
Libya - 1977 LIBYAN NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN
The Libyan Transport Ministry assigned the study of the national plan for 1977; the study was aimed to the definition of priorities for the modernisation of the transport network and to the identification of the investment strategies; a preliminary detailed traffic survey at national scale was performed by POLYTECNA HARRIS. My activity was to design the technical specifications of the survey, to follow the execution of the works, to receive and analyse with specific computer programs the data collected on magnetic tapes at the various locations and to prepare the state of the art report needed for the subsequent analysis.
