Dow Plaquemine Eagleray

Projects

Dow Plaquemine Eagleray

2023 ABC National Excellence in Construction, Pyramid Award & 2022 ABC Pelican Chapter Excellence in Construction Merit Winner
Industrial Buildings

Project Overview

GROUP Contractors was contracted by Dow in Plaquemine, Louisiana to devise a solution for installing environmental foundational piles inside of their functioning industrial plant. The project required the installation of 384 environmental pipe piles measuring 105 feet long, along with 20-inch-diameter, 60-foot-long casings, to ensure that contaminants in the soil didn’t find their way to the surface.

The length of the pile casings was a major factor throughout the project as most pile casings average about 20 feet in length while the casings for this project were over 100 feet long each. GROUP Contractors’ solution was to use a self-fabricated mandrel to drive the casing pipe, followed by 14-inch, 105-foot-long pipe piles.

“In the process, we pushed the contaminants down and kept them in the ground,” said Steven Chustz, GROUP Contractors Project Manager. “We also created a seal that wouldn’t allow the dirt to come back up, thereby eliminating the need for remediation.”

The GROUP team found a solution to prefabricate the required piles within the relatively tight quarters within the operating plant. A 200-ton crane was used to left the piles into place. “We had 105 feet of 14-inch pile and then a 60-foot casing. That comes out to about 170 feet of pipe, times 336 pieces. It was basically three pieces of pipe to install one pile,” said Chustz. In total, there were 1,152 pieces of pipe that were offloaded, staged in the area, and then welded on-site.

As a safety precaution, GROUP set up barricades on the backsides of the trucks upon which piles were being welded to prevent the possibility of any pieces of pipe coming loose and rolling off of the trucks.

In the end, GROUP exceeded expected production rates, despite some unexpected delays, and the team completed the project on time in just four months.

Project Included::

  • Installation of 384 105-Foot Environmental Pipe Piles & Casings
  • On-Site Pile Fabrication
  • Driving Piles with 60-Foot Mandrel

“The team from GROUP provided consistent leadership in overcoming unplanned events and mitigated impacts with resequencing efforts. It was clear from the beginning that GROUP was aligned with our goals of completing the work safely, meeting our quality requirements, and in the needed timeline.”

Al Manoo, Project Director, The Dow Chemical Co.