Keeping contamination at bay was nearly as crucial during the construction of this Saudi Arabian superabsorbent-polymers (SAP) plant as it is now during production of the plant's end product: material used to make diapers and disposable hygiene products.
"Because the product is FDA-approved and goes into baby diapers, the hygiene standards are very high," says Bernd de Jonge, project director at Fluor. Such standards meant the team had to go above the norm in keeping the site clean. "The project had to have a full-blown cleanliness program in place until the building was fully closed with [running] HVAC units [that had] a slight overpressure to ensure that no dust and foreign matter would enter and possibly contaminate the hygiene product," de Jonge says. That mind-set continued throughout the project and near the end, when the integrated project team's senior members, including managers of the complex and client operations, held a "cleanliness afternoon" to do a "white glove" inspection of the premises.