Coal Age

NOV 2015

Coal Age Magazine - For nearly 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.

Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/603417

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 25 of 59

Everything's bigger in Texas — and that doesn't stop with the state's lignite mining scene. Luminant, the state's top lignite producer, certainly took that saying liter- ally when they kicked off a project last year to move a total of four massive draglines to new locations while quite literally mov- ing forward in safety and productivity. The project, which was three years in the making, included moving draglines at Luminant's Big Brown mine, Kosse mine and Martin Lake mines to newly devel- oped mining areas, including its still-new Liberty complex. In all, it took two full seasons, and the draglines were moved more than 30 miles in central and eastern Texas. The producer and competitive gener- ator retained global transportation engi- n e e r i n g a n d i m p l e m e n t a t i o n g r o u p Mammoet USA South for the moves; the company brought in a new, state-of-the- art 1,000 wheel vehicle to carry the four units, which varied in size from 6 million pounds to 13 million lb each. Nearly 60 self-propelled modular transporters and trailers powered by nine 600-horsepower engines were workhorses to get the pro- ject completed on time. The timespan of years that it often takes to completely disassemble and rebuild a dragline, and months to walk it to a new home, was reduced significantly — and despite one of the moves extending 15 miles. According to Steve Kopenitz, Luminant senior vice president of mining, doing it all safely, efficiently and cost effectively was crucial, so he was very pleased when the crews were able to shrink the relocation process to just a few weeks using the interconnected trailers. Because none of the units were torn apart and reassembled piece by piece, the cost savings were significant as well. Even better, Luminant was able to save lost pro- duction time since all the draglines were back in operation less than a week after completing each respective transport. Just like any other major project, exten- sive preparations and careful attention to details are required — but this massive move, of course, was four times bigger. That made the scope of every aspect of the moves that much more complex, accord- ing to Luminant maintenance project and outage manager Brad Gadt. "Our team coordinated logistics for everything from crossing pipelines and closing and crossing county roads to build- ing new roadways and lowering and dis- connecting power lines," he said. "With literally thousands of moving parts to man- age, including the machine size, transport distance, scheduling and weather changes, our employees consistently kept their focus on safety from start to finish." Dragline Move No. 1: Big Brown mine to Turlington mine — BI D-13 dragline — April 2014 The BI 1350W, a 6.5-million-lb behemoth of a machine, was the first unit to be moved; it took nearly 500 tires to support the weight. With a boom measuring just under 300 ft, the dragline filled 24 inter- connected trailers when it made its trek. The dragline first began operating at the Big Brown mine, northeast of Fairfield, Freestone County, in 1978. It most recent- ly functioned as the primary earth-mover to complete significant reclamation pro- jects the company had planned. In its 43-year life span to date, the Big Brown operation has moved more than 2.3 billion cubic yards of earth and mined an estimated 175 million tons of lignite. At current, more than 15,000 acres at the mine have been reclaimed. The dragline's bucket can hold 62 cubic yards of over- burden, and the unit can move as much as 20 million cubic yards of earth each year. K i c k i n g o f f t h e t r a n s p o r t p r o j e c t , crews successfully walked the dragline b l a st h o l e d r i l l i n g 24 www.coalage.com November 2015 Luminant's lignite production totals more than 30 million tons annually. l i g n i t e m i n i n g B Y D O N N A S C H M I D T , F I E L D E D I T O R The Art of the Move Top Texas lignite producer Luminant takes on not just one, but four, major dragline moves — and with enviable results About Luminant • No. 1 lignite producer in Texas • 30 million tons of annual lignite production • 10 total draglines currently operating at six lignite mines • The company has more than 13,700 megawatts of generation, 8,000 MW of which is fueled by coal • EFH and Luminant have restored more than 73,000 acres of its lignite mining operations, including more than 37.6 million trees planted

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Coal Age - NOV 2015