Replacing a manual fuel distribution system at Newark Liberty International Airport with a new automated model—while pumping 2 million gallons of jet fuel through a facility hosting 46.1 million passengers and more than 450,000 flights last year—required a sophisticated game plan and great coordination.

The team installed new infrastructure including 29,000 linear ft of buried double wall steel pipe with full penetration welds; one 40,000-gallon and three 10,000-gallon underground storage tanks; a two-slot truck fill station; emergency fuel shutoff instruments; programmable logic and inventory fuel control systems; and a CCTV monitoring program.

Crews had to excavate along public roads and airside locations such as taxiways—and avoid disrupting aircraft movement—in order to install the cathodically protected steel pipe, using a specially designed steel plate and pile shoring process to execute larger digs.

The new system features motorized valves, automated tank level gauging and computer-operated monitoring and controls for fuel delivery throughout the airport. The program also has prepared the airport for a major redevelopment and expansion.

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