Underground Construction - July 2017 - 27

Hard metal submersible pumps with
integral agitator provide long service
life in dewatering excavations where
entrained sand is a problem.

laden with sand. Pumping a water/
sand slurry is tough on pumps -
particularly aluminum dewatering
pumps. When doing work in Galveston, Boyer Construction had to
deal with this condition.
Galveston Island, located in
Southeast Texas, runs west to
east, and is slightly tilted to the
northeast end, where the city of
Galveston is located. The north
side of the island opens up to a
protected harbor, while the southern side faces the Gulf of Mexico.
Before the 1900 Hurricane - which
still holds the unenviable record of
the most deadly natural disaster
in American history, with 6,000
deaths - the highest point in Galveston was 9 feet above sea level.
After the 1900 Hurricane, a
17-foot seawall running 3 miles
long (and has since been extended) was built to protect the city
and its people from other storms.
Constructing the seawall was easy
compared to the next step, which
was raising the entire city up to the
edge of the seawall, then sloping
the island down 8 feet above sea
level on the north side of the island, so water getting over the sea
wall would drain into the bay. This
July 2017 Underground Construction

engineering feat, worked on for
over 10 years, was accomplished
by pumping a sand and seawater
slurry underneath buildings to
raise the island. The seawater ran
off, leaving the sand, and, thus,
building up the island. Since then,
hurricanes have hit Galveston, but
never with the impact of the great
1900 storm.
In September 2008, Hurricane
Ike devastated Galveston Island,
along with the Bolivar Peninsula,
and Gilchrist, TX, with sustained
winds of 110 mph and a 22-foot
storm surge. Property damage
was estimated at $29.5 billion
and 135 people died in the United States due to the storm. The
downtown area of Galveston had
6 feet of standing water after the
storm passed through. As is always
the case after a hurricane hits a
populated area, the rebuilding
effort takes years of hard work
and countless dollars to repair the
damage. One of the companies
that worked on rebuilding Galveston, was Boyer Construction.

Boyer
Boyer Construction is an established construction and engineering firm specializing in civil, electrical, mechanical and inland marine
construction projects. Based in
northwest Houston on an 18-acre
facility, over 250 engineers, master
electricians and plumbers, equipment specialists, and skilled fabricators, have worked on various
rehabilitation and infrastructure
replacement projects throughout
southeast Texas.
Many of those projects, including those in Galveston, required
dewatering pumps on coffer dams
and large excavation jobs. These
demanding services require continual operation, pumping water that
is often laden with silt and sand.
Couple continual cycling with salt
and brackish water, and you have
elements that will minimize the
life of most dewatering pumps.
Looking for help in keeping its dewatering pumps from

Storm surge attacks a seawall protecting this coastal city.

wearing out, Boyer Construction
called BJM Pumps distributor in
Houston, Pumps of Houston, for
advice and help. Cory Marcotte,
one of Pumps of Houston's sales
engineers, suggested using a BJM
pump: the LWA Series of hard metal dewatering pumps. This series of
submersible, lightweight, agitator
pumps provided a heavy-duty solution at an economical cost.
They offered the flow range
and high lifts required for a broad
spectrum of applications. From
2 horsepower (flows to 180 GPM
and heads to 55 feet) to 10 horsepower (flows to 475 gallons per
minute and heads to 117 feet),
they are designed and constructed for difficult services. The LWA
impeller and wear plate are made
of abrasion resistant chrome iron,
while the agitator and volute are
constructed in hardened ductile
iron - perfect for the salt/sand
slurry and solids-laden water Boyer
Construction would encounter.
The integral agitator is designed to
mix settled solids with pump water
to maintain a steady solids concentration and discharge volume.
Boyer Construction field test-

ed a couple of LWA pumps on its
Galveston job sites, and was satisfied with the performance and
service life. Over the subsequent
two years, Boyer Construction purchased more than 25 LWA units.
Every job site has its own particular set of pumping conditions.
Selecting the optimum pump for
the service takes the collaboration
of a competent contractor and
a hydraulic specialist. The right
choice of equipment can make a
substantial impact on the timely
completion of the project and your
bottom line results.
About the Author: Mike Bjorkman
is vice president and director of marketing for BJM Corp., and has more
than 30 years of experience in the
pump industry.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Boyer Inc., (713) 466-5395
boyerinc.com
BJM Pumps, (860) 399-5937
bjmpumps.com
Pumps of Houston (281) 448-1352
pumpsofhouston.com
ucononline.com

http://www.boyerinc.com http://www.bjmpumps.com http://www.pumpsofhouston.com http://www.ucononline.com

Underground Construction - July 2017

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