ONT airport is currently undergoing substantial year-over-year fuel demand growth as a result of increased traffic from both cargo, domestic, and foreign commercial airlines. Currier & Company (Currier) was selected in May 2018 to complete a fast paced inspection and due diligence evaluation study of 1) the ONTFUEL airside refueler loading facility and 2) the landside Kinder Morgan (KMI) Ontario terminal, which directly supplies the airside loading rack via a 1.6-mile-long 6” diameter pipeline.
This study included: 1) Due Diligence evaluations including characterization of the short-term and long-term fuel supply issues, fuel supply logistics, infrastructure limitations, best practices comparisons and operational improvements; and 2) Recommendations including a phased set of options and alternative approaches to facilitate a short-term solution, and provide for an uninterrupted fuel supply to the airside loading rack throughout the 2018 peak holiday season, and concepts to add airside bulk fuel storage to meet short-term and long-term fuel demands.
As a result of the ONT Fuel System Study and Recommendations Project, in late-November 2018, Currier & Co. and CurrierTK undertook a fast-paced Design-Build (DB) project to construct a temporary airside fuel facility to support ONT’s 2018 peak holiday season. As a result of the accelerated schedule, the project demanded a high-level of coordination between Currier and the Owner, Operator, local AHJ, and the ONT Airport Authority.
In three weeks, the Currier DB team successfully designed, permitted, constructed and tested/commissioned a temporary refueler loading facility consisting of (5) 20k-gal baker tanks, (2) contained refueler loading positions, (1) contained refueler unloading position, (3) diesel driven loading & unloading pumps, and (3) filter trains (filter separators and relaxation chambers). This temporary facility operated from December 14, 2018, to January 15, 2019, with a total Jet-A throughput of approximately 420,000-gal, and successfully kept the airport ‘wet’ with fuel throughout their busy holiday cargo season.
