The Ashtabula County Port Authority is in the midst of an almost $11 million project at the site of the former FirstEnergy Plant C, in Ashtabula Township that closed in 2012.
The project required three ready-mix trucks to go by barge, 3,000 feet out on the lake to reach the jobsite. The Port Authority is converting one of Plant C's two 8-foot-wide water intake pipes to an output. The pipe will then be extended 1,500 fet farther out into Lake Erie and the diameter will be decreased.
R.W. Sidley provided the special concrete mix to fuse the smaller pipe to the existing larger pipe. The mixers were from the producer's North Kingsville plant and combined took 27 1/2 yards of concrete out on the lake. Each of the loads had a high-powered retarder admixture to keep the concrete from setting up too fast, and an admixture for underwater placement that prevents cement and fines from washing out of the mix in water.
The pipe is 40 feet underwater and one diver filled the form that pumped underwater by a Hydracrete Boom Pump, that was also on the barge. Their spec for the concrete required it would achieve 4,000 psi in 28 days. The three-day cylinder broke at 4,500 psi and seven-day cylinder broke a little over 6,000 psi.
