Man-made islands in Mackenzie River: Evaluation of hydraulic design

Norman Hells is situated on the north bank of the Mackenzie River, 145 km south of the Arctic Circle. The use of a pool-wide water flood system for secondary recovery and the features of the oil-bearing structure require six man-made platforms to provide vertical access to the portion of the oil pool that 1 ies beneath the Mackenzie River (60%). With a view to the economic viability of the secondary recovery project, man-made islands - hydraulically filled - represent the least risk of massive failure in connection with the environmental loads to be expected. As the man-made islands predominantly determine the economic feasibility of the expansion project, their design has been kept conservative, reflecting a tried and true construction concept, appl ied under various conditions. The design criteria were established by Esso Resources Canada Ltd. in co-operation with Hydronamic. The 'final' design resulted from several additional studies and computations. This report embraces the results of the above-mentioned studies and computations in hydraul ic engineering focussing on: (1) the computation of surge velocities during the release -of severe river-ice jams; (2) the computation of the degree of damage to the rip-rap slope protection; (3) the prediction of the development of local scour in the river bed adjacent to the rip-rap apron.