Coke Drums Prepare for Final Journey

The final pair of coke drums bound for Chevron's El Segundo refinery traveled a quarter-mile up Harbor Drive and Herondo Street to a staging area at the corner of Herondo Street and Pacific Coast Highway on Monday night.

The drums were shuttled via barge from the Port of Los Angeles to Mole B in King Harbor on Monday, where they were offloaded.

The 500,000-pound drums will travel up Pacific Coast Highway and Sepulveda Boulevard through Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach and into El Segundo on Wednesday night. The journey will take one night.

"All of this is a very orchestrated ballet that we have been working very diligently on," said Chevron spokesman Jeff Wilson. "A lot of lessons were learned from the space shuttle and rock movement and it is to our great benefit that those two activities just took place."

Both drums are 100 feet long and 28 feet across. The Spanish-made cokers will replace units installed in 1968 and will be used to heat crude oil to "crack" it and refine different grades of fuel.

In all, six drums will be transported to the refinery. The first pair was transported Feb. 20; the second, Feb. 27.

In exchange for cooperation from the city of Redondo Beach, Chevron is paying $2.4 million to Redondo Beach. The money will be spent on implementing the Mole B Master Plan, which involves the construction of a sailing classroom, mast-up boat storage and a boat launch.

For more information on the project, visit Chevron's website at cokedrumproject.com.

Coke Drum Transport Timeline (Late Wednesday/Early Thursday):

• 10:00 p.m. | Road closure on Herondo at the beginning of route to rotate street lights.
• 11:15 p.m. | First drum begins rolling onto Pacific Coast Highway at Herondo Street at the Redondo Beach/Hermosa Beach border.
• 11:30 p.m. | Second drum begins rolling onto Pacific Coast Highway at the same location as the first drum.
• 12:00 a.m. | Drums reach intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Aviation Boulevard.
• 1:00 a.m. | Drums reach intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Manhattan Beach Boulevard.
• 2:00 a.m. | Drums turn west from Pacific Coast Highway onto Rosecrans Avenue.
• 2:45 a.m. | First drum enters the Chevron refinery at intersection of Pacific Avenue and Rosecrans Avenue.
• 3:15 a.m. | Second drum enters Chevron refinery at same location as first drum.
• 5:00 a.m. | Any closed roads reopen to traffic by 5 a.m at the latest.

—City News Service contributed to this report.

Related:

• Chevron Coke Drum Transport to Affect Beach Cities
• Coke Drums Roll Through Redondo
• Coke Drums to Continue Journey Wednesday