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Midwest Cooling Towers Rebuilds a Tired Power Plant Cooling Tower

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Challenge

Rebuild and refurbish a tired and unsafe 44-year old two-cell wood cooling tower located at a midwestern municipal power plant.

Solution

Midwest Cooling Towers was contacted to inspect the cooling tower and found it in bad shape. In the ensuing six years, an explosion at a nearby industrial plant further damaged the cooling tower.

Time came to undertake the repair/rebuild project. The originally planned replacement of approximately 50% of the structure turned into much more when the project started. It was determined that the structure was in much worse shape and for safety’s sake the cooling tower was almost entirely replaced.

Midwest Cooling Towers was able to reuse the mechanical equipment system (gear boxes, driveshafts, motors, fans, supports) and one fan stack. All the rest of the cooling tower was replaced: new structure, fill, eliminators, distribution system, fan deck, casing, and two fan stacks.

The result was a new life for a tired cooling tower. And, a very pleased customer

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Midwest Cooling Towers Rapidly Completes Cooling Tower Reconstruction

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Challenge

Demolish an existing approximately 35-year old 10-cell wood cooling tower located at a Midwestern power plant and erect a new 10-cell fiberglass cooling tower on the existing concrete basin within a tight six-week outage window.

Solution

Midwest Cooling Towers took on the challenge. We managed five subcontractors, logistically working side-by-side with each other and our own crew in tackling this project.

Midwest provided engineering, design, drafting, manufacturing, material, field supervision, project management and labor. The Midwest crew consisted of three field superintendents and 70 to 80 daily laborers.

Midwest’s subsidiary company, Beetle Plastics, was also involved in the project, providing the large 20” fiberglass pipe used for the ten risers and the internal water distribution crossovers. Beetle Plastics also supplied the three 24” diameter bypass pipes, expansion joints for the risers and other various components.

Midwest was chosen for the job because of our expertise in the new concept of fiberglass crossflow cooling towers.

The contract required a minimum of eight cells operational at the end of the scheduled six-week outage.

Because of the aggressive schedule, successful completion of this project required extensive planning.

The cooling tower structure, or bent lines, and the fill grids were pre-assembled on site prior to the outage. The fan stacks, mechanical support sub-assemblies and stairways were also pre-assembled on site.

When the outage started we were able to move quickly. Demolition of the existing cooling tower took just three days.

The assembly of the fiberglass bent lines was very efficient. Eighty-one bent lines were stood in five days.

Unlike a wood tower, the columns can be one piece instead of two or three pieces. This reduces the amount of time and material it takes to put a bent line together.

The extensive planning, hard work and smart project management garnered positive results. Midwest not only met the aggressive schedule, we exceeded expectations by handing over all 10 cells to the customer four days ahead of schedule.

Most importantly, the entire project was completed with no reportable safety incidents.

In addition, Midwest Cooling Towers was recognized with a performance bonus.

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Efficient Cooling Tower Demolition and Crossflow Tower Construction

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Challenge

Demolish two existing wood six-cell cooling towers and complete eight of 12 cells in two new fiberglass cooling towers within a tight six-week outage window.

Solution

Midwest teamed up with Precision Cooling Towers, a contractor out of Henderson, Kentucky to tackle this project.

Midwest provided engineering, design, drafting, manufacturing, material, and field assistance. Precision provided the labor to build the towers.

Although Precision was providing the labor, Midwest provided a field advisor/consultant to provide expertise in the construction of our fiberglass towers.

Midwest was chosen for the job because of our expertise in the new concept of fiberglass crossflow cooling towers.

The plant had a scheduled outage for six weeks. Four of the six cells on each tower (8 of 12 total) had to be operational at the end of the six-week outage.

Although the schedule for the six-week outage was very aggressive, the deadline was met. The entire external structure and eight of 12 cells were completed on time.

Successful completion of this project was possible due to extensive planning.

The bent lines were assembled on site prior to the outage. This allowed us to complete the demolition and erect both structures 10 days after the outage started. 110 bent lines were stood in seven days (55 per tower).

The assembly of the fiberglass bent lines was very efficient. Unlike a wood tower, the columns can be one piece instead of two or three pieces. This reduces the amount of time and material it takes to put a bent line together

The utility customer was very pleased with the finished project.

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