In 2001, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida cabinet approved the construction and operation of a new 633-megawatt high-efficiency power plant to serve central Florida. The new unit consisted of a combustion turbine, combustion turbine generator a heat-recovery steam generator boiler and a steam turbine generator and various transformers.
In 2008, Beyel Brothers Crane and Rigging was on the scene to assist in the construction of an additional power-generation facility, expected to begin commercial operation in 2010.
Beyel Brothers, working for Southern Company Services, a regional energy company based in the southeast and a producer of electricity, handled everything heavy from unloading to setting the components in place, including building the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) boiler and setting the combustion turbines, turbine generators, the steam turbine generator, and transformers.
Components all came in by rail and were unloaded by a hydraulic gantry, according to Dave Mandich, Beyel Brothers Orlando branch manager, and project manager of the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) project.
“This gantry stayed at the rail site the entire job. The gantry would pick up the item from the rail car, the rail car would be moved out, a multi-axle Goldhofer hydraulic trailer would be placed under the load, which would be transported to the laydown yard where the items were placed on stands and beams until they were needed. The Goldhofer trailer is equipped with an onboard hydraulic lift system, which was used to lower and lift the components for storage on and off the storage stands. No crane was required at the lay down yard,” Mandich said.
Beyel Brothers worked six, 10-hour days through most of the project.
“We had two days per rail car before we got charged. On our best day, we unloaded two cars and it was a sun up to sun down job. We had to cut all bracing off the rail car that hauled the modules to return them clean, then pick up the item with the gantry, move the rail car out, move the Goldhofer in and load the item, transport the Goldhofer to the laydown yard, move the next rail car in and repeat the process. It was time consuming,” Mandich said.
“There were 12 HRSG bundles that went together to form the boiler unit,” said Tony Hillman, chief operating officer of Beyel Brothers Inc. and executive project manager of the Stanton Energy Project. “The goalposts were put in first and then we erected two of the bundles and then more goalposts and then two more bundles. The components of HRSG had to go in a definite order. As they were needed we reloaded the HRSG modules onto the Goldhofer and transported them to the HRSG foundation. The HRSG modules were lifted and set directly from the Goldhofer trailer. A Liebherr LR1300 Super Lift crane with derrick was the main lift crane and the modules were tailed with a Manitowoc 999 crawler crane. The steam drums were then installed. There were high, low and intermediate pressure units to be set. Then the boiler unit had steel cladding installed to box it in and a stack was erected on the end, which OUC built themselves,”
The equipment on the job included an LR1300 Super Lift with derrick. The Super Lift and derrick stayed on the LR1300 the entire job. The HRSG units had to be tailed with a Manitowoc 999 crane. Beyel also had a Manitowoc 888 on the site and a 16 Line Goldhofer trailer with a prime mover. Also, a hydraulic slide system and a 400-ton (363 t) gantry and 500-ton (453 t) gantry, were used. All of the crane lifts were engineered and stamped by a professional engineer.
“We recently bought three Liebherr LR1300’s with heavy lift derrick,” Hillman said. “This was the first job for one of the Liebherr’s with the heavy lift derrick. We had timber mats set up for the LR1300 so it could move itself and the Super Lift unit. The maximum capacity of this crane is 330 tons, the Super Lift attachments extend how far out it can handle it.
“During construction we set a steam turbine generator on a pedestal 30 feet up in the air, then the combustion turbine and combustion turbine generator were set on pedestals about 5 feet off the ground. We also set three transformers for them,” Hillman added.
The LR1300 was used to lift the steam drums (220,000 lbs. [99,790 kg]), modules (450,000 lbs. [204,116 kg]), a steam generator (505,000 lbs. [229,064 kg]) and steam turbine (320,000 lbs. 145,150 kg]), 25 ft. (7.6 m) up in the air. The HRSG modules needing a tail crane utilized the Manitowoc 999.
“After we built the boiler we had to set the combustion turbine and combustion turbine generator. We used another gantry on rails to set the turbines. They were also transported on site using the Goldhofer trailer,” Hillman said.
The final unit to go in was the steam turbine generator, which was set with the LR1300; the transformers came at a later date and were placed using a jack and slide system.
“During the project we had an incident of really bad weather, which threatened to cause damage to the partially erected boiler. We suffered almost hurricane strength winds. Fortunately our subcontractor, Ivey’s Construction’s Superintendent Matt Taylor, installed a system of tiebacks which held the HRSG’s in place and avoided a disaster,” Hillman said.
Despite losing a week and a half to Hurricane Faye, Beyel Brothers was pleased with how the job progressed.
“The Goldhofer was used only on site so we didn’t have any permitting issues. We did have to do some remedial work on the rail siding to work with the gantry. One gantry, the 400 ton, at the railroad siding stayed in place but the other one, the 500 ton, was set on rails so it could travel,” Hillman said.
“[There was] nothing special on any of the lifts, just heavy lifts. There were a lot of obstacles on the site where we set the modules and we had limited space but we had it planned right. We went over top of column lines, had to crib up two mats high to clear 10 and a half inches of pedestal column line down the center where I needed to go,” Mandich said.
“We always made the pad, but had to go two high to clear columns. We used one layer of mats for the steam turbine because there wasn’t anything in the way. There weren’t really any surprises,” Mandich added.
Beyel’s portion of the project, which began in June 2008, was finished in February 2009, but the company still has some crane rentals on the job while the plant is being completed.
Ivey Construction worked as a subcontractor, providing the labor for building the boiler. Matt Taylor served as project superintendent, while Bob Queen served as executive project manager for Ivey’s Construction.
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