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Plant Extended Power Uprate

Problem: Barnhart was hired to lift, haul and handle more than 19 million pounds of equipment on a major plant uprate project at a nuclear station.

Solution: Barnhart established a first-rate logistics team to track and coordinate manpower and equipment and fabricated specialized, job-specific equipment.

Barnhart was hired to lift, haul and handle more than 19 million pounds of equipment on a major plant uprate project at a Mississippi nuclear station. Most of the major components were replaced to facilitate the power increase from 1201 MWe to 1475 MWe. The team removed and replaced four main transformers, two moisture separator reheaters (MSRs), nine feed water heaters (FWHs), two reactor feed pump turbines, the rotor, stator and the steam dryer.

When the old components were removed, the team relocated 48 contaminated components to the onsite mausoleum. Given a project of this magnitude, many tasks were conducted in parallel to reduce the overall schedule duration - i.e., the FWHs and MSRs had parallel activities. More than 150 crewmen worked on the job at any one time and more than 300 trucks were used to mobilize equipment. Mobilization required one centralized laydown yard to receive, track and redistribute the components and tooling.

Barnhart established a first-rate logistics team to track and coordinate manpower and equipment. For each phase of the project, Barnhart fabricated specialized, job-specific equipment off site and delivered it to the plant. Through their exemplary planning and execution in the field, the teams improved schedule times on every aspect of the massive project and completed the project safely. In recognition of their work on this project, Barnhart received the 2013 SCR&A Rigging Job of the Year Award.