Building on a Solid Foundation

(Photo by: nepaaerialphotography.com)

Currently under construction in Berwick, PA utilizes the abundant natural gas resources in Pennsylvania to generate in excess of 1,000 MW of electricity, or enough power for 1 million homes, using a combined-cycle natural gas-fired power generation system.

Sordoni Construction Services, Inc. (SCS) was contracted by Gemma Power Systems, LLC to perform all of the major cast-in-place concrete foundation work for the plant.  This scope of work included the placement of over 22,000 cu yd. of concrete, and more than 1,000 tons of reinforcing steel. Many of the major turbine foundations consisted of “mass concrete” pours of up to 2,000 cubic yards. To put this into perspective, a pour of this size is roughly equivalent to 200 fully loaded concrete trucks. In order to accommodate these sizable demands, these pours required the dedicated resources of three different concrete plants, and up to 30 concrete trucks constantly rotating back-and-forth over a 14 hour period in order to complete.

Another critical component of SCS’s scope was the precise placement of over 3,800 foundation anchor bolts, the largest measuring over 3½ inches in diameter, 6 feet in length and weighing several hundred pounds. Through an innovative mounting solution developed onsite, the SCS team was able to maintain the tight anchor bolt placement tolerances of 1/16” without any adjustments for over 99.9% of the bolts placed.

In addition to the concrete foundation construction work, SCS was simultaneously awarded design-build contracts to construct four (4) onsite buildings that totaled over 30,000 square feet.

We are proud of our commitment to quality and safety on all our projects. As SCS’s scope winds down at the Moxie Freedom plant, we are particularly proud of our safety record on this project. Leveraging the support a full-time SCS safety and quality manager, we successfully completed the project with no recordable events for a crew of 40 carpenters, laborers and finishers.

Industrial, mass concrete is differentiated from traditional concrete pours due to the fact of the complexity of managing the temperature differentials for such a large volume of curing concrete. SCS’s team not only has the skills to manage such tasks, but the experience required to ensure the highest quality outcomes for our clients.