SLOPE PROTECTION DESIGN FOR THE ENDICOTT PROJECT
Client: Member of the Petroleum Industry
The Endicott Project, consisting of two islands connected to shore by a gravel causeway, represents the first offshore production facility to be constructed in the Alaska Beaufort Sea. It was completed in 1986 in the shallow waters of the Sagavanirktok River Delta. Coastal Frontiers personnel have provided coastal engineering support for the project for nearly 30 years, from the preliminary design stage in the early 1980s through present-day maintenance and expansion work.
The islands and causeways are protected by four different slope protection systems that reflect varying degrees of exposure to wave and ice attack. Key components include articulated, linked concrete mats; large gravel-filled bags; sacrificial gravel beaches; and both straight and compound profile configurations. Key contributions from Coastal Frontiers personnel include the following.
Areas of Contribution
Design of the slope protection systems, including 2- and 3-dimensional hydraulic model testing
Optimization of the causeway route based on an analysis of deltaic bathymetry
As-built survey of the slope protection systems
Periodic bathymetric surveys to evaluate scour in the causeway breaches and sedimentation in a seawater intake channel
Design of a sediment barrier and maintenance dredging program for the intake channel (2008-2009)
Comprehensive evaluation of slope protection systems with recommendations to permit extension of original design life (2008-2009)
Assessment of options for a new marine bypass seawater outfall system (2010)