Hydro-electric energy plants require a unique skillset and Wright Concrete was the contractor for the job.
Complex concrete solutions
- January 2021
Building a hydro-electric dam is no small feat, no matter what size. Appalachian Hydro Associates set out to bring innovation to the Berea area by converting an old lock on the Kentucky river in Ravenna Kentucky into a hydroelectric dam to help bring clean energy to Berea College’s campus. They needed a contractor who could provide the concrete, construct the forms, drill rock anchors, and provide many other services around the project. Lock 12 and the original dam were constructed between 1907 and 1910.
Wright Concrete worked as a multi company team on this job. Wright Concrete handled all grading, excavation, foundation footings, concrete wall and floor construction, and steel erection for the control building package.
Wrightway Drilling & Exploration then came in to handle the installation of 26 grouted rock anchors into bedrock to seal off the shore side wall and stabilize the area so our team could get to work inside the lock.
Wright Concrete then mucked and dewatered the chamber below construction levels so we could pour a new solid foundation. Wrightway Concrete Pumping pumped concrete over 350 feet through our 28-meter boom pump truck to install concrete into the forms we constructed inside the lock. We poured, finished, and tied rebar in the powerhouse, installed draft tubes, structural beams for the trash rack and flood gates, installed all structural steel embeds for the 5 turbines, handrails, and turbine access covers and trash rack. In total, Wright concrete poured over 3,000 cubic yards of concrete and tied over 370,000 pounds of rebar in the construction of the Lock 12 Hydro-Electric Power Plant.
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