Valdez Crude Oil Terminal Containment Walls

Construction of the crude oil terminal in the mid-to-late 1970’s included large containment dikes to protect the site from a potential oil spill due to failure of the storage tanks. An important factor in the selection of Reinforced Earth MSE walls was the seismic stability of the structures under possible earthquake conditions. Alyeska’s seismic criteria for the Valdez area required that structures such as these be capable of withstanding an 8.5 Richter magnitude earthquake, with associated ground acceleration of 0.6g and a 50-second duration.