September 15, 2006

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association's Springerville Unit 3 earns POWER's highest honor

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE

Never satisfied

The risk of delaying a project schedule for unforeseen reasons is foreseeable by a good project manager. At Springerville, Bechtel introduced a number of innovations that improved the design of the project and shortened its construction schedule. For example, Bechtel relied more on shop fabrication and on-site preassembly, thus enabling a few large components to be erected more quickly (Figures 8 and 9).

9. Erector set. The steam generator's front wall being walked into the boiler cavity. Courtesy: Bechtel Power

Another aspect of project design—this one patent-pending—was developed for the Meizhou Wan project, advanced at Millmerran, and refined further by the Springerville team. Its salient feature is the use of trusses to create a combined structure for supporting the boiler and roof. The approach significantly reduces the number of traditionally framed members and transfers the load of the suspended boiler to the steel columns more efficiently. Another innovative part of the design enables large platforms, panels, and stairway tower components to arrive at the site complete with grating and metal decking. After rebar is installed and concrete added, the platforms are lifted into place and connected, providing safer and faster access to upper levels of the structure.

"By using shop modularization and increasing ground fabrication, we've greatly reduced the number of crane picks," said Greg Wagner, Bechtel's site manager at Springerville. "This allows us to shave our schedule and reduce costs. More importantly, we improve safety by reducing the amount of work done at height and getting earlier access to finished platforms for all subsequent work."

Get with the program

I suspect that Bechtel's solid-fuel project team's dance card will be filling up quickly. You might want to get in the queue early so you can cross "build a coal plant" off your to-do list. There is no substitute for success in this business.