The Roi-Namur Fuel Pier Rehabilitation in the Kwajalein Atoll

The Roi-Namur Fuel Pier is an integral part of the U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll/Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site Facilities that are located on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The pier's rehabilitation design and subsequent construction posed many challenges, none the least of which was its remote location in the West Central Pacific Ocean. Included in the design considerations was the requirement to provide a "building blocks" design to best facilitate the potential construction by the U.S. Navy Seabees, as well as to account for the inherent difficulties of on-site fabrication and to make optimum use of prefabricated elements to enhance constructability. Due to the nature of the available funding and the desire to achieve sustainable design goals, maximizing reuse of all acceptable existing construction played a role, all the while satisfying the stated desire to improve facility configuration and capacity to better serve the mission and the operations of the Missile Defense Command. Furthermore, there was the mandate to provide a design that would afford a minimum 75-year service life for the new facility and have minimal overall environmental impact. This led to a number of innovative design considerations that included specially formulated, high-strength, galvanized reinforced, precast concrete components; employing galvanized structural steel construction with a "forgiving" system of connections to best facilitate the arrangement of the existing piling being retained; a carefully controlled dredging and spoils collection scenario to best accommodate future vessel operations and avoid adverse impact on the sensitive surrounding marine environment; a sophisticated spill containment system that would afford the required environmental protection but require minimal maintenance from installation forces; and a concerted effort to maximize the use of recycled and local resources. In the end, a fully rehabilitated fuel and supplies off-loading facility would be constructed, with a number of during-construction improvisations that helped provide the desired end product, such that the rehabilitated facility will further the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command's mission and operations.