Royal Australian Air Force Base (RAAF) Tindal Jet Fuel Storage Tanks, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, ROICC Darwin

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Market Sector — Aviation, Defense

Project Dates — 2021-2022

NAICS — 236220

Client — NACFAC Pacific- Australia

Contract Value — $512K

Services

✓ Construction Management

RAAF Base Tindal, located in the outback near Katherine, Northern Territory, is one of Australia’s premier defense sites and became an operational Air Force Base in 1984. The base hosts aircraft exercises featuring international visitors annually. Throughout the year, RAAF Base Tindal conducts high-end training attacks. This project involved the construction of two bulk fuel storage tanks for mission aircraft training on the base. These 25,000-barrel tanks also required construction of an aircraft liquid fuel pumphouse and a filter building. Overall, the fuel system included over 7,000 feet of underground piping, filter separators, vertical turbine pumps, a product recover tank, and numerous control, ball, and plug valves. Electrical components also were vital to the project and encompassed power, lighting, and fire protection systems as well as a standby generator.

MacDonald-Bedford, operating under its Australian subsidiary, Macdonald-Bedford Terra Australis, provided an Australian construction oversight engineer (COE) to provide Construction Management services ensuring that design and construction followed DoD as well as Australian standards. The COE coordinated site visits, conducted design reviews, arranged logistics, provided recommendations on constructability, took ongoing construction photos, maintained project files, and offered support for analysis of testing, accreditation, scheduling, and activation.