Orlando International Airport (MCO) Fuel Farm Access System Modernization
MCO’s fuel operations team needed to solve an access challenge across its fuel farm — not by replacing existing infrastructure, but by connecting isolated platforms into one seamless, OSHA-compliant network. JE engineered a galvanized steel system that maximized the value of existing investments.
The fuel farm’s pumps and equipment were served by fall protection platforms installed over time as disconnected sections rather than a unified network. Maintenance personnel repeatedly climbed up and down between areas and crossed over horizontal piping — inefficient, non-continuous, and not fully aligned with current OSHA requirements.
TRAVEL ROUTE ACROSS THE FARM // ELEVATION
3 BREAKS VS 0
BEFORE
Four sections, three breaks in the route
4 ISOLATED SECTIONS
GROUND RETURN AT EACH GAP
Every gap meant climbing down, stepping over the pipe, and climbing back up.
AFTER
The same four sections, bridged at deck height
ONE CONTINUOUS NETWORK
BRIDGED ABOVE THE PIPING
One continuous route from end to end — no descent, no pipe crossing.
Ground level
Horizontal piping run
Existing platform section
New connective walkway
Route walked before: down, over the pipe, back up
The four existing sections are unchanged in both views. What JE added is the three walkways that bridge the gaps at deck height — so the route runs end to end without touching the ground.
Constraint 01
Disconnected Legacy Platforms
Existing sections functioned independently rather than as one network.
Constraint 02
Inefficient Travel Routes
Personnel repeatedly climbed down and back up, crossing piping between pumps.
Constraint 03
Partial OSHA Alignment
Existing infrastructure didn’t fully meet current compliance requirements.
02
The solution
Engineered to Interface, Not to Replace
JE designed and installed a custom galvanized steel access system that connected the previously isolated platform sections into one continuous, OSHA-compliant elevated network — engineered to interface directly with the existing infrastructure rather than replace it, preserving the customer’s prior capital investment.
Each constraint answered by a design decision
Constraint 01
Existing sections functioned independently rather than as one network.
Design decision
Integrated Platform Connectivity
Custom walkways connected previously isolated platform sections, engineered to interface directly with the existing structures rather than replace them.
Constraint 02
Personnel repeatedly climbed down and back up, crossing piping between pumps.
Design decision
Continuous Elevated Route
Bridging each gap at deck height removed the ground return entirely — technicians cross above the piping instead of stepping over it.
Constraint 03
Existing infrastructure didn’t fully meet current compliance requirements.
Design decision
OSHA-Compliant Fall Protection
The entire access route was upgraded to meet current requirements — not only the new connective sections.
Why hot-dip galvanized steel
An outdoor fuel farm is a corrosion environment that never lets up.
Galvanized steel was selected for long-term corrosion resistance in an outdoor industrial environment — the same reasoning that puts marine alloys on JE’s harbour work, applied to a fuel facility in Florida.
A Continuous OSHA-Compliant Network, Built Without Replacing Existing Infrastructure
Technicians can now travel across the entire fuel farm without repeatedly returning to ground level, no longer stepping over piping systems, with every pump and maintenance point connected through one continuous access network.
No trip to ground
Improved Efficiency
Continuous access significantly reduces travel time between work locations.
Feet stay on deck
Enhanced Safety
Eliminates the need to cross piping or navigate inefficient access paths.
Nothing torn out
Extended Infrastructure Life
Enhanced existing assets rather than replacing them, preserving prior capital investment.
JE connected every previously isolated platform section at the MCO fuel farm into one continuous access network — upgrading the entire route to current OSHA compliance while preserving and extending the life of existing infrastructure.
04
Related work
Where This Project Connects
Extending infrastructure rather than replacing it is its own discipline — and this is the second JE programme where the existing structure stayed and the access around it changed.
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