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Old 10th May 2010, 06:44
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Shrike200
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
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A great many of the welds in the fuel supply pipeline are apparently defective. Standard pipe lengths are 6m - the pipeline is about 10km, thats 16000 welds total (I forget how many they said are supposedly defective, but lets just say it's more than ten!) Standard engineering practice (according to my resident B.Eng) is to inspect a steel pipeline under construction every 50 metres built, or so, by sending somebody inside with a camera to take some photos and check on the weld quality. After construction, certificates to say that it's all been done properly must be produced. This seems to have been omitted. Normally, the contractor would be liable for failing to construct something to specification. The news articles seem to imply that ACSA is somehow going to have to fork out the cash, which should only occur if they had, in a fit of retardedness, said 'Sure, we trust you built it properly without any kind of supporting documentation!' Which is unlikely (even for them), so the focus should be on whoever was supposed to build the thing, if my understanding of the situation is correct.
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