RUSH ISLAND TO BALDWIN 345kV
LINE & MISSISSIPPI RIVER CROSSING
MASTERING THE
MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI
How The L.E. Myers Co. won against America’s Greatest River
Few would argue
that the Mississippi River
has long played a role in
America’s history, serving
as a source of significant
physical and economic
growth for our nation.
So it has its good points.
But when you’re a major
electrical contractor trying to construct a transmission line across this
massive body of water,
many of the mighty Mississipi’s good graces and
contributions over the
years are temporarily forgotten.
As part of an ongoing alliance agreement with
Ameren, The L.E. Myers Co., a subsidiary of
the MYR Group, was
selected to perform the
majority of transmission
construction
services
for the Baldwin to Rush
Island 345kV transmission line. The project included construction of 28
miles of new 345kV single circuit transmission
line on single shaft, steel
pole reinforced structures. It also included a
2800’ Mississippi River
crossing that required
five enormous 400’ steel
lattice structures with
10’ x 10’ foundations for
each of the lattice tower’s four legs. The five
towers were located in
wooded wetlands along
each side of the Mississippi River.
to more easily sequence
the work, Ameren and
The L.E. Myers Co. could
not afford further holdups and worked steadily
to carefully coordinate
manpower and schedules
for the new line.
Although easements on
some portions of the
new transmission line
route had not yet been
acquired, The L.E. Myers Co. began construction on the new line in
June 2009 in areas where
proper approvals had
been secured. Although
this impacted the ability
THEN THE
RAINS CAME
Although some delays
related to the river crossing may have been anticipated, no one would have
guessed that the spring
flooding would wreak
such havoc. “We started
constuction activities related to the river crossJanuary 2010
VIEW LOOKING EAST
The new transmission line crosses the Mississippi River
from the Rush Island Power Station on the west side
to the Baldwin Power Station near Baldwin, IL.
Photo taken during tower erection.
ing last November,” said
Gary Klocke, The L.E.
Myers Co. Construction Manager overseeing
the project. “The spring
flooding delayed us by 22
weeks on one side of the
river and 26 weeks on the
other. We expected some
flooding, but nothing like
this,” he added. “We were
unable to work on tower
construction inside the
levees, and weren’t able
to resume construction
until the last week of August. We were expecting to be done with the
project the first part of
August, and now it’s November of 2010 and we
are just finishing up the
project.”
TREMENDOUS
SUPPORT
FROM AMEREN
Because the flooding had
a devastating impact to
the project’s schedule,
Ameren and The L.E. Myers
teams to prepare contingency plans in anticipation of continued flooding delays. This planning
process resulted in paying huge dividends in
completing the project.
“Ameren was a tremedous
advocate when it came to
ensuring we were doing
all we could to meet the
schedule,” said Klocke.
“For example, they were
instrumental in work
ABOVE AND RIGHT
Erection crews construct the
400’ lattice structures on
either side of the Mississippi
River
Co. worked together to
adjust the schedule in
order to meet Ameren’s
requirement of having
the project completed before the end of 2010. This
collaborative
planning
process involved weekly
meetings beginning in
late July between The L.E.
Myers Co. and Ameren
ing closely with the civil
contractor to increase accessability to the site by
upgrading roads on each
side of the river, which
was a tremendous help, “
he added.
“Initially, we had planned
to use two cranes for the
entire project, and move
them from one site to
the next, using the same
crews and manpower,”
commented James Eilders, Project Manager
for The L.E. Myers Co.
“In order to meet the revised schedule, we had to
add additional cranes to
help us set tops of structures. We had planned to
only use helicopters for
this but needed the additional equipment. We
were fortunate that we
had other jobs under
construction in the surrounding area, which
allowed us to easily mobilize workers between
VIEW LOOKING WEST
The Rush Island Power Plant , located near Festus, MO
can be seen in the background
projects as required,
without a need to retrain or rehire,” he added.
“This ended up saving us
time and money, which
meant it also saved our
client time and money.”
Despite the extreme challenges encountered, The
L.E. Myers Co. project
team of Gary Klocke,
James Eilders, Terry Taylor (General Foreman)
and Joey Hamlin (General Foreman) did an excellent job of successfully
and safely handling all aspects of this project.
“I’ve been at this a long
time, but this one gave
us a run for the money,”
said Klocke. “In the end,
there’s no greater feeling
than knowing we were
able to come through for
our client.”
Story by Paula Frisina
LEFT AND ABOVE A view of the 400’ lattice structures,
and an example of measures taken to deal with the flooding
THE L.E. MYERS CO.
a s u b s i d i a r y o f M Y R G r o u p I n c.
The L.E. Myers Co., a subsidiary of MYR Group Inc. is one of the
largest specialty electrical contractors in the country, making it one
of few with the ability to quickly deploy manpower, equipment and
resources to projects of varying size and scope throughout the nation.
With roots dating to 1891, L.E. Myers provides a complete range of power line construction services to utilities, telecommunications providers,
industrial facilities and government agencies throughout the United States.
For more information, please visit
www.myrgroup.com or call 847-290-1891.