Ras Abu Fontas Pipeline Trench

The expanded Ras Abu Fontas power station produces 625 MW of electrical power using five gas turbines. The facilities also include a desalination plant. The intake trench was fourteen meters wide, eight meters deep and two kilometers in length. Four two-meter-diameter fiberglass-reinforced plastic pipes will feed water from the intake to the station. The foot of the intake is at a depth of seven meters. Much of the trench was cut through rock having compressive strengths in excess of 15,000 psi.
 
The dredge Carolina excavated the pipeline trench in unblasted rock within a work trench previously excavated by the dredge Illinois. Deposition of the material was to an offshore recreation island. Drilling and blasting was by the Drillboat Algonquin.