Bullet-Resistant Precast Pump Buildings Chosen for Missouri Well Houses
The Public Water Supply District #2, of St Charles County in Defiance Mo., has grown from a small, rural water district outside of St. Louis, into the largest water district in the State of Missouri. The system covers a 400-mile service area and a population of about 75,000 people. As the system grows, so grows the need to upgrade facilities.
One significant project is the ongoing replacement of 12 pump buildings along the Missouri River. The existing structures are decades old and composed of concrete block on mounds of dirt. Located in a flood plain, they have experienced extreme wear and tear and deterioration is well underway.
Black Veatch, the design engineer, considered the option of using fiberglass structures, but ruled it out because the remote stations are in locations where deer hunting is common. The buildings had to withstand the potential for gunfire. The choice was made to use ballistics-resistant Easi-Set precast concrete buildings, tested to UL 752, Level 5.
The pump buildings are being strategically replaced over time with the prefabricated Easi-Set buildings, raised onto platforms approximately 15-ft above the flood plain. The structures are manufactured by McCann Concrete Products, Inc., a licensed producer of Easi-Set buildings in south-central Ill.
Each 12-ft x 12-ft x 8-ft building comes from the manufacturing plant outfitted with a pre-installed, fan-forced wall heater, electrical panel box, light fixtures, exhaust fan and R-10 insulation. A Bilco roof hatch provides ease in maintenance and pump removal.
"Each pump building took two weeks to cast and fully assemble at our plant in Dorsey, Ill," says Mark Melvin with McCann. "There are four workers on site to set each building." A crane lifts each building into place and then it is bolted onto the platform. Completed buildings have been put in service within two to three weeks of installation.
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