Lime Slurry-Target Distribution Center

Dry Lime-Building Pad Dry Up

Cement-Palo Verde Water Storage Pond

Lime Slurry-Riverside Industrial Park

Cement-Goodyear Airport

Cement-Maricopa County Roads
Cement Stabilization for Water Storage Pond

Arizona Public Service, the operator of the the world’s largest nuclear power plant at Palo Verde, needed to replace an aging waste water storage pond. The new pond is about 45 acres, will have a water depth of 29 feet will contain over 450 million gallons of water.

The managers of the project called Asphalt Busters to discuss the options for stabilizing the sloping sides of the pond. We discussed the onsite soils to be used, strength requirements and our construction methods. Cement at 8% was chosen.

To ensure that our construction methods would meet APS’s exacting standards, we performed an onsite demonstration showing our spreading and mixing abilities.  During that demonstration several air quality tests were made to verify that we could meet the strict dust requirements. Samples of the cement stabilized material were tested to verify that we could also meet the strict spreading, mixing and moister requirements of this project.
The pictures and captions below illustrate the process used on this project.
Palo Verde Cement Stabilization-Mixing Cement with Soil
On a level area (mixing table) we spread over 200 truck loads of cement at 8% and then injected over a 1,400,000 gallons of water at 200 to 425 gallons per minute and mixed 12” deep which generated about 40,000 cubic yards of material.

Palo Verde Cement Stabilization-Placing Soil on Slope

The grading contractor then picked up the material with a scraper and placed the processed material on the slope and then finish graded and compacted to the required density.

Palo Verde Cement Stabilization-Pond LinerA two layer liner was then installed to seal the pond from any leakage.


Soil Stabilization Meets Nuclear Power Plant
Read the aricle in the Asphalt Contractor July 2008 issue online.