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.
