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BHP Billiton chose Black & Veatch as the engineer of record to lead the design, procurement, project controls, resident engineering, pre-commissioning and commissioning for the marine works and desalination components of the Escondida Water Supply project. Transcript: NORTHERN CHILE’S REMOTE ATACAMA DESERT IS KNOWN AS THE DRIEST PLACE ON EARTH. IT’S ALSO RICH IN MINERALS AND HOME TO THE LARGEST COPPER MINE IN THE WORLD. THE ESCONDIDA WATER SUPPLY PROJECT SUPPORTS THE MINE’S EXPANSION STRATEGY USING ALTERNATIVE WATER SUPPLIES THROUGH A LARGE-SCALE DESALINATION PLANT AND WATER CONVEYANCE SYSTEM. AS ENGINEER OF RECORD, BLACK & VEATCH LED THE ENGINEERING, DESIGN, PROCUREMENT, PRE-COMMISSIONING AND COMMISSIONING FOR THE MARINE WORKS AND DESALINATION COMPONENTS OF THE PROJCT. APPLYING ONLY THE BEST AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES, BLACK & VEATCH CREATED A MODULAR DESALINATION FACILITY DESIGN THAT ALLOWED CONTINUED IMPROVEMENT IN PRODUCTIVITY DURING COMMISSIONING, RESULTING IN A RECORD SAFETY PERFORMANCE. Rene Dominguez | Project Manager, Black & Veatch "We owe the success of this project to our professionals and their dedication. We have a very safe project. Black & Veatch worked around 1. 9 million man-hours in this project without any safety incident. By means of our engineering we provided safety, productivity and the fulfillment of the project’s working program." THE MARINE WORKS USED MICRO TUNNELING TECHNOLOGY FOR THE INTAKE AND OUTFALL COMPONENT, A FIRST IN SOUTH AMERICA. Brady Hays | Project Director, Black & Veatch "It allowed us to get a lot of people out of harm’s way by being able to just micro tunnel out below the sea floor and had very minimal disruption to the fishing communities and other ecological aspects of the sea." ESSENTIAL TO THE PROJECT’S SUCCESS WAS THE COLLABORATION OF TEAMS FROM BLACK & VEATCH’S WATER, POWER AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUSINESSES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE. Sifredo Artola | Project Field Manager, Black & Veatch "We’re talking about almost unique, very complex designs that require the current state of the art technology. To me, this kind of project has been a great opportunity to interact with design teams from around the world." Brady Hays | Project Director, Black & Veatch "It became quite a journey and we built a lot of great relationships with the client and the owner team working side-by-side, and that’s what really set us up for success for the last six years."
