Kern Power Plant

Kern Power Plant

Bakersfield, CA

Silverado Contractors performed this project for PG&E. This was the third contract for PG&E on the same property. In a previous contract we removed the old boilers. The scope of work was underground removal. At the surface, the abandoned boiler foundations resembled a giant concrete checkerboard with dirt in the squares, just a hint of what was below. Other remains of the old plant poked up from the dust – a big concrete pad from a motor, a pair of smokestack foundations, and a building foundation from the old Quonset huts we’d torn down years ago. Off to the North, the tank farm stood vacant, its tanks removed; the earthen dikes broken through. We removed 120 truckloads of concrete checkerboard buried five feet in the earth. Along the way, we ran into old asbestos transite ducts, hauled off 100 truckloads of contaminated dirt, graded and backfilled 17-acres of blown dust and capped it all off with a soil binder approximately nicknamed “gorilla snot”. The schedule was 40 days.

We performed the work in less time. We moved in 380,000 lbs. of heavy equipment: a Liebherr 974 Excavator for the breaking and a Link Belt 800 Excavator for the digging and built it all up out of five semi-truck loads of parts and pieces. We added a 15,000 lb. HB 7000 Hammer standing twice the size of a man with a chisel as wide as a coffee can. We brought in our subcontractors early and worked simultaneously. We made the decision to take the foundation down to top of the old mat slab to a convenient breaking point simplifying the process. Silverado completed the project safely, within time and within budget.