NSTI was selected to design and construct all of the permanent telecommunications facilities at the Alpine oil field on the North Slope of Alaska.
NSTI worked closely with client telecommunication engineers to develop the necessary systems needed to meet the operational requirements. NSTI prepared detailed design documents, equipment bills of materials and received and staged all telecommunications materials.
As individual facilities were prepared, NSTI shipped material packages and sent installation crews to the site to install and commission the telecommunication systems. NSTI coordinated the work of subcontractors to commission and place their systems online.
Detailed as-built documentation was prepared and submitted to the project as part of a formal turnover process. The turnover package consisted of 15 volumes of documentation and inventories. We prepared sets of technical illustrations totaling more than 600 drawings.
NSTI designed an extensive two-way radio system to support the Alpine production facility. The hundreds of handheld and mobile radios that operate on sixteen repeater and simplex radio channels required extensive interference analysis calculations and careful frequency selection.
NSTI designed and installed a unique cable TV system for the Alpine camp utilizing programming sources from facilities 30 miles east of Alpine. Custom messages and local weather conditions, including temperature and wind chill, were distributed on a separate cable channel to improve employee awareness of weather-related work hazards.
NSTI designed, constructed, and obtained UL certifications for 13 single cabinet “Remote Electronics and Instrumentation Modules”. The REIM cabinet contained a common set of all telephone, paging, network, and instrumentation equipment and interconnections needed by the Alpine process control systems.
A 115-ft communications tower was designed and erected at Alpine to support a variety of two-way radio and microwave system antennas. The tower vendor supplied special-order, cold weather steel for all highly stressed tower parts.
Other systems engineered and installed by NSTI include:
- 1,000 line PABX telephone system
- Radio control consoles for use by plant operators & security
- Surveillance video cameras that provide the operator with remote control views of essential facilities such as the flare pit and fuel loading docks
- Public address audio paging system
- Radio digital paging system capable of collecting plant alarms and directly paging the responsible maintenance staff
- Corporate networking infrastructure for both business unit and automation/process control use
- Digital microwave links
- A special microwave link was installed between the Alpine communications center and the drilling rig, which allow the rig to move hundreds of yards up and down the well row without realigning the path.
As each system was placed in service over the four-year project, NSTI performed all necessary preventive and routine maintenance. During the final months of the project, NSTI trained Phillips employees on Alpine systems and then turned maintenance responsibilities over to the existing Kuparuk telecom maintenance staff.
