Traveling Water Screen Maintenance, Repair & Equipment Design
Much of Substructure’s work at a major refuse-to-energy facility in Massachusetts, from late summer into fall of 2010, was focused in the pump house and entailed extensive rehab work on the intake structures. The bulk of the work was related to the long-term maintenance of the traveling water screens.
Substructure designed and installed new stop guides and large stop logs to isolate the pumphouse infrastructure from the river on which it is located during the maintenance period. Substructure’s pneumatic-seal design enabled the 30-foot-deep pump bays to be isolated quickly, allowing complete bypass of the raw water to keep the plant 100 percent operational throughout the reconstruction.
During a week long plant shutdown period in mid August, Substructure mobilized multiple crews to work around the clock in order to complete the critical intake repair while the plant was “cold.” In addition to the work in the pumphouse, Substructure conducted a diving inspection and repair of the outfall pipe and diffusers in the river. Also during this period, utilizing its survey vessel Orion, Substructure also conducted a high-resolution multibeam survey of the river in the vicinity of the plant, including the intake and outfall structures.
