OWNER:
Kerr McGee Chemical Corporation
Mobile Facility. Theodore, Alabama
ENGINEER:
Thompson Engineering Testing, Inc.
3707 Cottage Hill Road
Mobile, Alabama 36606
Kerr McGee’s
existing iron oxide sludge containment facility was filled to capacity
and the company was faced with either constructing a new containment
pond at a different location or increasing the capacity of their existing
pond. The estimated cost of a new facility was $1.6 million, which
was not considered to be economically feasible. The only remaining
alternative was to raise the dikes around the existing pond; however,
an outboard dike raise using conventional 1V on 3H side slopes resulted
in slope stability concerns.
A design was developed
for an inboard dike raise with steep side slopes in order to increase
the dike height by 10 feet. This increased the storage capacity by
83 percent. The design incorporated 1V on 1.5H outboard slopes and
1V on 1H inboard slopes. This resulted in a portion of the dike raise
having to be constructed over the soft iron oxide sludge. Slope stability
was accomplished by utilizing geosynthetic reinforcement incorporated
at specified locations in the fill. Construction of the inboard dike
raise was completed in May 1985 and placed into operation. Total construction
time was two months and the resulting cost savings over constructing
a new facility was $1 million.
