CASE STUDY

Complex Lake Crossing Tower Restoration

The Situation

For engineers and contractors, few environments are more challenging than building in open water. But moving electricity across bodies of water is a big part of a Southeastern electric utility’s mission, and for that, they need resilient crossing towers.

A three-tower lake crossing has been standing since the lake was originally created, when a dam on the lake was closed to traffic and started generating power. This dam is the longest on the river at more than 8,000 feet long. The reservoir it creates is the largest artificial body of water east of the Mississippi River. When Osmose engineers did a preliminary assessment of the structures, it was clear that a collapse and line outage was a genuine possibility. The steel H-piles and concrete foundations that supported the towers were substantially compromised at the water level. A significant weather event could bring one or all of the towers and transmission lines down.

Fill out the form to download and read more about the challenges and obstacles Osmose and the utility had to tackle and the solution they came up with.