Power Plant, Combined Cycle Units

Ninyo & Moore performed geophysical and geotechnical evaluations relative to the construction of a power station consisting of two separate 500 megawatt power plants. The facilities included turbine/generator units with stacks, cooling towers, condensing units, water treatment structures, control buildings, and electrical switching facilities. Design-phase services included a review of pertinent literature; subsurface exploration including the drilling, logging and sampling of exploratory borings and test pits; laboratory testing; and preparation of a written geotechnical report. Ninyo & Moore's geophysical services included performance of thirteen electrical resistivity surveys to evaluate the site soil corrosivity at planned infrastructure footprints, and to evaluate the grounding potential at a proposed switchyard expansion. Ninyo & Moore also provided downhole evaluation of shear and compression wave velocity measurements within two borehole locations at discrete depths from about 50 feet below ground surface to 3 feet below ground surface, and conducted evaluation of dynamic soil properties of the on-site soil materials using the wave data we collected from these boreholes. Data included shear modulus (G), Young's Modulus (E), Poisson's Ratio (v), and attenuation (a).