East 34th St Heliport

Tank Replacement & Utility Design Services

The 34th Street Heliport provides a take-off and landing place, as well as fueling, for helicopters to access Lower Manhattan. CORE completed the design for the replacement of two Petroleum Bulk Storage (PBS) underground storage tanks (USTs) that contained Jet A fuel. During construction activities, a temporary fuel supply was provided and water and sanitary lines were relocated on an accelerated schedule to keep the busy heliport operational and to minimize business operation impacts. During the design phase, potential structural issues related to the UST locations were identified that prevented the tanks from being completely removed. CORE proposed an innovative design to minimize structural impacts to the East River Tunnels, located directly under the site. The design required the tanks to be emptied of their contents and decontaminated, and the top half of each tank to be removed, leaving the bottom half of the tanks in place. The replacement tanks were designed and constructed to be placed inside the remaining bottoms of the former USTs, alleviating structural concerns. CORE completed the remainder of the UST system design including piping, venting, dispensing, spill boxes, electronic monitoring, and sensing. CORE also completed the permitting for all utilities that required relocation as part of the tank replacement work, including water and sanitary sewer lines. A number of complex design elements were required as a result of the close working quarters and underlying East River Railroad Tunnels.