PDCA STEEL MEMBER – STEEL PROJECT
Sets of AMERICAN SpiralWeld steel
pipe piles await their turn to be
driven deep into the earth to form
the sub-foundation for a cap-and-pier
foundation at mainline bents 30-33
AMERICAN SpiralWeld Supports
the Road to Local and Regional
Progress in South Carolina
By WMyra Hunter, AMERICAN SpiralWeld hen the Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. Terminal opens
in North Charleston in 2021, container traffic
traveling to and from it will use the new Port
Access Road, a direct route from I-26 that will reduce the need
for commercial trucks to use local roads. Supporting the mainline
road’s foundation piers will be South Carolina made spiral-welded
structural steel pipe installed as vertical piles driven 60 to 90 feet
into the ground. Spiral-welded steel will also be used in the subfoundations
of associated new bridges and roads.
AMERICAN SpiralWeld in Columbia, just over 100 miles northwest
of Charleston, manufactured steel pipe piles being supplied
for the project through Consolidated Pipe & Supply Co., Inc.
“The AMERICAN SpiralWeld product fit the project’s specifications,
budget and availability requirements,” said Atlantic/
Southeast District salesperson Brian Land of Consolidated. “The
Columbia mill has far exceeded anything we have asked of them,
and they have been a great resource and help on this job.”
Delivery of AMERICAN SpiralWeld product to the job site began
in December 2017 and will continue into 2020. Quantities made by
AMERICAN are 23,590 feet of 30-inch by 0.625-inch wall; 4,410 feet of
36-inch by 0.75-inch wall; and 1,710 feet of 54-inch by 0.75-inch wall.
As of early May 2019, approximately 85 percent had been installed.
Additional AMERICAN SpiralWeld pipe will be used to support
a noise barrier wall along the east side of I-26 in the Rosemont
neighborhood. The barrier’s foundation will include 89 pieces
(4,807 feet) of 30-inch by 0.625-inch wall pipe cut to lengths ranging
from 17 to 68 feet.
Fluor-Lane South Carolina, LLC, is the design-build firm for
this project.
“It has been a pleasure to work with AMERICAN and
Consolidated,” said Fluor-Lane contracts manager Eliza Alderman.
“If I need something, all I have to do is pick up the phone or send
an email.”
A $220-million project of the South Carolina Department of
Transportation, the 1.2-mile Port Access Road will include a fully
directional interchange on I-26 to help separate cargo carrying
trucks from highway commuters and residential traffic. Johnson,
Mirmiran & Thompson, Inc. (JMT), Fluor-Lane’s lead design partner
for this project, engineered the I-26 interchange including six
new bridges, an extension of Stromboli Avenue and associated
roadway and railway improvements.
Some of the AMERICAN spiral-welded steel pipe piles will be
used in the bridge sub-foundation for the Stromboli extension,
work to be done in 2020 during the final phase. The project is on
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