Overview
To efficiently circulate cooling water through the plant, Ballard constructed a replacement discharge pipeline structure to flow into the plant’s cooling lake formed from earth-rolled dams.

Scope of Work
Ballard was responsible for the design, engineering, and installation of a 2,000 linear foot floatation system to launch, float and sink into position two 600-foot, twenty-four-inch stainless steel discharge pipes at an operating Nuclear Power Plant. Work elements included mechanical dredging, rock removal, marine pipe installation, placement of 3,600 yards of in-water concrete, and placing rock riprap.

Innovative Solutions
Ballard used land-based surveying and bathymetry soundings to establish lake bed elevations for dredging and pipe installation, along with barge loading and stability analyses, design of pipe floatation frame system, static and adjustable pipe roller design and placement for support and entrance angle, pipe floatation and buoyancy analysis, contact stress analysis between rollers and pipe interaction, dynamic analysis of environmental effects during pipe installation, trimble GPS dredging system, concrete headwall design, and concrete formwork design.

The project also included an extremely aggressive schedule. Ballard brought in additional personnel, worked around the clock, and engineered custom solutions to meet the design and schedule concerns.

Results
The successful project resulted in the on-time completion for the installation and protection of a new pipeline structure.