Mysti Nundahl, Author at Westbrook Associated Engineers

Ag Shipping Facility

September 17, 2020 By Mysti Nundahl

This project is a new agricultural marine shipping facility, which will be located along the Missouri River (rm 680.75) in Monona County, Iowa near the town of Blencoe. The proposed Ag shipping facility will involve a barge unloading area for dry fertilizer, roadway salt, and roadway aggregates (gravel & stone). These materials will be unloaded from product barges by the use of a material handler with a clamshell bucket sitting on a platform barge. Materials will be placed into a hopper sitting on the platform barge and then conveyed to the land side storage areas. The dry fertilizer products shall be conveyed to a building enclosure. Roadway aggregate and roadway salt shall be conveyed to radial tele-stacker conveyor to be stock piled. The empty product barges will then be cleaned and positioned downstream breasting against another platform barge, which will be used for loading the product barges with soybean or corn. The loading area will use a combination of belt conveyors and a radial tele-stacker conveyor to convey material to be load to the product barges and then transported down the Missouri River. The proposed Ag shipping facility will have roadways for semi-truck access to each of the above described unloading and loading areas of the site.

Westbrook Associated Engineers provided the following engineering services for this project:

Agency Coordination & Permitting – coordination with US Army Corps of Engineers, Iowa DNR & Monona County regarding work within the Missouri river which included a Hydrologic & Hydraulic Analysis (H&H) to be included with “Joint Application” submitted to the USACOE and IDNR. Westbrook also prepared Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) including design of all associated stormwater devices to meet state and federal stormwater quality and quantity requirements for this new site development project.
Design Phase Administrative Services – coordination with geotechnical, bathymetric survey, landside survey, building contractors, mechanical equipment suppliers, preliminary coordination with various construction related activities involving site grading, concrete foundations, structural steel, etc.
Structural Analysis & Design – barge mooring pipe piles, modifications to both platform barges, access ramp to platform barges, modifications to used belt conveyor truss’s for increase span lengths, access walkways to barge mooring pipe piles.
Structural Foundation Design – access ramp to platform barge, belt conveyors, fertilizer building, access walkways to barge mooring pipe piles
Site Development – grading plan and details for loading / unloading truck traffic and design for site drainage and all stormwater devices
Construction Phase Administrative Service – RFI’s, shop drawing review, material cert’s, on-site inspections and construction documentation control.

For more information from two local news stations with coverage of the ground breaking ceremony held in Blenco on September 9^th: Gov. Reynolds, Blencoe community break ground on NEW Coop Ag port along Missouri River | KMEG & Port of Blencoe breaks ground, potential money-saver for farmers | 4KTIV

Engineering Transport Services

April 10, 2020 By Mysti Nundahl

When a one of the nation’s largest refinery owners required expert bridge engineering coupled with heavy lifting and transport services, they selected the team of Westbrook Associated Engineers, Inc. (WAE) and Mammoet for this task. The scope of work involved transporting two massive reactors across a 1980’s era county highway bridge utilizing SPMT (Self Propelled Modular Transports) from a rail siding and then erecting them at the refinery site. The total weight of each reactor and SPMT configuration to be transported across the county highway bridge was approximately 1,500,000 pounds.

WAE inspected the existing highway bridge structure per FHWA guidelines, performed a series of refined structural analysis in order to ascertain AASHTO LRFD rating factors, developed a detailed rating report for review by both public and private entities, supervised the bridge crossing during each SPMT transport and performed pre/post bridge inspections for each SPMT transport. The in-depth structural analysis and bridge modelling undertaken by WAE proved that acceptable rating factors could be achieved from the existing bridge. This then allowed each reactor to be transported by standardized SPMT v. a more complicated and time-consuming jack-n-slide method. It is estimated that this resulted in a $750,000 savings to the project.

WAE would especially like to thank Mammoet (Eric Molenda and Nathan Overell) and all the public and private agencies that made this a very successful and safe transport. The attention to detail and professionalism shown by all made this a truly a TEAM effort.

Check out our Facebook or LinkedIn pages to see a video of the reactor crossing the bridge!

Milwaukee Street Bridge over Rock River

April 9, 2020 By Mysti Nundahl

The Milwaukee Street Bridge over the Rock River in Janesville, WI opened last week. Westbrook was responsible for construction administration and engineering. The new bridge is a four-span bridge with decorative arches, parapets, and lighting. This project replaced a four-span concrete arch bridge that was built in 1913/14 that had outlived its design life and had become structurally deficient. That bridge in turn had replaced a timber structure that burned down in 1913. Remnants of past structures were encountered throughout the project. The project team also worked through multiple floods and the current pandemic.

Here’s an article from the Janesville Gazette about the Milwaukee Street Bridge over the Rock River in downtown Janesville: https://tinyurl.com/thx7ob6

CTH M – Washington County

March 4, 2020 By Mysti Nundahl

CTH M bridge construction inspection, in the Town of Trenton within Washington County, Wisconsin, continues to move along quickly despite the cold and snow in February. The old bridge deck and piers are demolished. The piles are driven and both new piers are poured. In the coming weeks, the abutments will be poured with the deck to follow. The project is running on schedule and under budget and is expected to be completed summer 2020. Photo is courtesy of Washington County’s drone.

RT&S – Kankakee River Bridge

January 28, 2020 By Mysti Nundahl

In the January 27, 2020 issue of RT&S, Westbrook was mentioned in the following article: “Innovation in stream—Teams work together to tackle tough conditions surrounding Kankakee River rail bridge project.” Thankful for the opportunity to help ICC safely and successfully construct this bridge.
https://www.rtands.com/railroad-news/innovation-in-stream/#