7/19/2024
Last week was all mobilizing and site prep for Kent Lewin and his Monty crew of 3. The group started by cleaning up the laydown yard and getting the site into workable condition while fencing gurus Dustin Bradbury and Will Boyce set up the perimeter to keep the prior “residents” out.
With everything on site, the crew doubled in size this week and began getting the boat and barges launched into the Androscoggin., with a little help from Auburn local Cote Crane. Once the barge pieces were pinned together, Bancroft’s 65-ton rough terrain crane was able to be walked onto it, which puts the crew in prime position to be ready for next week’s draw down.
After the water is down to the crest-level, the crew can begin to install a temporary bulkhead to allow for the bladder replacement on the spans of dams 1 and 2. If all goes well, Brookfield should be christening and commissioning the bladders after our demobilization in October.
9/6/2024
Under the direction of Kent Lewin, work has progressed nicely over the past month, even with additional being added into the mix. After the old, vandalized bladder was removed, the anchor bolts went through testing, which yielded a less than desirable outcome to Brookfield — over 50% failed. This meant the crew spent the better part of the past two weeks replacing more than 300 anchor bolts in order to bring things up to standard.
With the dam crests properly prepped, the crew began installation on span #1 this week, with rubber blader manufacturer rep onsite for additional support. Immediately following span #1’s installation, the crew will continue down the crest to start on span #2. So far, it seems each span should only take a week and things should be in good shape to start wrapping up within the next few weeks.
Before the crew can remove the temporary bulkheads, there are a number of checkboxes that have to be hit during the commissioning process — none of which Project Manager Kevin Capponi has any concerns over. Given things do go over well, the boat, crane, and barges will be demobilized sometime near the end of the month.
10/18/2024
Whatever you want to call it, call it that for Kent Lewin and company down to Monty Station. The guys wrapped up the removal of work platforms and bulkhead over the past couple of weeks and have since moved on.
The entire project took only a few months despite having two bladders and over 300 anchor bolts to replace (more than 50% of the total count). The original removal was due to vandalism, but it ended up in favor for Brookfield to have us test and repair the anchors to ensure everything was up to par.
Upon securing the new bladders into position, testing revealed they already had defects that the manufacturer (Dyrhoff) came to the site to remediate. Repairs were successfully completed, which allowed for the removal of the bulkhead to stay on schedule during the drawdown of the river.
Knowing vandalism was the original issue, Brookfield wanted to double down on site security and gave Dustin Bradbury and his fencing crew the green light to lock things down with plenty of new fencing, barbed wire, and other hardware to keep the hooligans out.
Now with the new fencing and security measures in place, the site has been completely demobilized and things are back to business as usual for the operators of Monty Station.
Commenting on the completion of the project was Project Manager Kevin Capponi:
This project went very well and was completed ahead of schedule even with the failed anchors and bladders leaks.
Seems more than appropriate to say “job well done everyone!”
