Century Aluminum

Typically, when an elevated water storage tank reaches its life expectancy, options are limited to demolishing the structure and re-building new. But what do you do when only the container portion is bad while the support structure is in perfectly good shape—and you cannot go more than a week without your valuable resource?

This was the situation for Century Aluminum’s 100,000-gallon elevated water tank. Production demands allowed only a small window of time for the plant to operate without it. Century turned to Phoenix to develop a time-saving solution. After analyzing the existing structure, Phoenix designed and built a new container on the ground adjacent to the tank. We painted the interior and exterior, complete with logos, all while the new container was on the ground.

Once the replacement container was ready, the existing tank was drained and the container was cut and removed from the structure. Just as the old container was set on the ground, the crane swung to the new container, already rigged, and placed it atop the support structure. It all happened within hours, allowing the connection points to be welded quickly into place with minimal coating touch-ups. The tank was returned to service within 48 hours of cutting loose, and the re-coating of the support structure continued to completion.