Lowman AEC Power Plant “Pinning System Project”

A.H. Beck installs a system of trestle work bridges and drilling equipment in the Lowman AEC Power Plant on the banks of the Tombigbee River

Owner: Black & Veatch

Contractor: Black & Veatch

Location: Leroy, Alabama

Solution: Design / Build, Earth Retention

Industry: Power

Techniques: Drilled Shafts

Owner: Black & Veatch

Contractor: Black & Veatch

Location: Leroy, Alabama

Solution: Design / Build, Earth Retention

Industry: Power

Techniques: Drilled Shafts

A.H. Beck installs a system of trestle work bridges and drilling equipment in the Lowman AEC Power Plant on the banks of the Tombigbee River

Overview:

The project was located on the banks of the Tombigbee River in Leroy, Alabama in the Charles R. Lowman Power Plant. The “Pinning System Project” consisted of one hundred 54-inch diameter cased drill shafts, averaging 112 feet in length. The drill shafts were installed to stop the slope failure occurring at the banks of the Tombigbee River. A. H. Beck (in conjunction with Jordan Pile Driving of Mobile, Alabama) designed and installed a system of trestle work bridges and long reach drilling equipment to construct the pinning shafts in the required location.

This was accomplished without applying any construction loads to the existing river bank. Each drill shaft had an average of eighty feet of casing installed down to an underlying limestone stratum, and then a drilled penetration into the limestone another twenty feet. Inclinometer casings and strain gauges were strategically placed in ten of the one hundred shafts to monitor the movement of the slope as new air quality control additions to the plant were constructed.