A.S. King Power Plant
Bayport, MN
Augered Cast-in-place piling overcome adverse soil conditions at a power plant addition.
The soils beneath a 560 megawatt coal fired power plant located in Stillwater, Minnesota consisted of sands, gravel, cobbles and peat layers overlying weak sandstone bedrock. Continuous flight augers advanced through this 20’ of overburden soils and then went 22’ into the sandstone to form 44’-0” piles. A total of 750 piers, carrying 400k ea were installed to support an upgrading of the plants Air Quality Control System (AQCS).
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The augered cast-in-place piling technique was used to install deep foundations 20 feet into weathered sandstone. The project involved the upgrading of the Air Quality Control System (AQCS) for a 560 megawatt coal fired power plant located in Stillwater, Minnesota. The site subsurface consisted of 20 feet of overburden overlying weak sandstone. The overburden consisted of sands and gravels with cobbles and boulders, and variable thicknesses of peat. Groundwater at the site was approximately 8 feet deep. Two foot diameter piers were selected to facilitate installation through the cobbles and boulders in the overburden and to penetrate the sandstone 22 feet. During installation of the first pier, the weak sandstone broke down to sand-sized material that could not be cleaned from the pier hole without the use of slurry to hold the material in suspension. However, the use of slurry would significantly impact both schedule and cost. Since the sandstone could be easily drilled with the pier equipment, it was believed that 2 foot diameter deep foundations could be installed as designed using augered cast-in-place piling techniques. A brief test drilling program was conducted to evaluate the viability of 2 foot diameter continuous flight augers penetrating 22 feet into the weak sandstone. The test drilling indicated that augered cast-in-place installation techniques should be successful. Following a short delay to mobilize the additional required equipment, construction commenced. Installation of the 2 foot diameter augered cast-in-place piling to a depth of 22 feet into the weak sandstone was successfully performed.
Construction Manager:
Lunda Construction Company
Engineer:
Black & Veatch
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