Special to CONTRACTOR
ST. LOUIS — Haberberger Mechanical has completed the installation of a dust-suppression system at Ameren UE’s Meramec power plant.
The system is part of a $40 million project being managed by commercial/industrial general contractor Tarlton Corp. and entails construction of a 5,460-ft. conveyer, which the utility will use to transfer coal from the railway onto barges that will ship the coal to other power plants. Haberberger installed thousands of feet of stainless steel piping that will help suppress the coal dust from being released into the air as a result of transporting the coal from the railway and storage areas to the barges.
Haberberger also installed flow-control cabinets, which house all the controls for the conveyer system. In addition, the company set chemical tanks and buildings, and equipped all the piping, pumps and metering devices for the conveyer.
Every transfer point in the conveyer system has the potential to raise clouds of dust, explained Haberberger’s Joe Wilhelm, project manager. The company installed and connected a dust-suppression system designed and fabricated by Benetech Inc., which specializes in products and systems for coal transportation and coal-fired power plants.
Haberberger installed four tanks, from 6,000 gal. to 8,000 gal., that hold the dust-suppression chemical and connected them to skid-mounted buildings, which contain mixing stations, valve stations and pumps. The solution is mixed with water from wells on Ameren’s property and pumped to spray headers wherever dust suppression is needed.
Haberberger’s crew installed 6,200 linear ft. of stainless steel piping from 4 in. down to 3/4 in. The pipe was both welded and press-fitted. Eight men worked on the job that started in March 2001 and finished in December.
The dust suppression project is only one of several that the company has been working on for the utility. Haberberger also upgraded the utility’s coal-handling facility under a general contract with ALSTOM Power and contracted directly with Ameren to install a turbine hydraulic control system.
The two projects were done at a feverish pace during an eight-week scheduled outage in November and December. Foreman Mike Grady and his crew of 125 men worked around the clock to finish the coal-handling job on time.
For the coal-handling project for Meramec Plant Unit No. 4, Haberberger installed new feeders, bowl mills, burners and piping. The company’s fabrication shop played an important role in this project as well. Pipefitters Local 562 fabricated the 20-in. coal pipes with ceramic lined fittings, each weighing 12,000 lb.
The coal-handling facility, which is served by the dust- suppression system, transfers coal from trains to barges, where it can be shipped to other Ameren plants.
The other project that Haberberger performed directly for Ameren at the Meramec Plant Unit No. 4 called for installation of a completely new turbine hydraulic control system, which consisted of a high-pressure pump skid, stainless steel piping and tubing, hydraulic actuators and the instrumentation. Foreman Steve Brightman and his pipe-fitter crew worked in shifts around the clock to meet the schedule. The fabrication shop was responsible for bending and welding the stainless steel tubing and piping.