Graycor Industrial Constructors is nearing completion of a rehabilitation of the No. 8 Coke Battery at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.’s Follansbee, W.Va., plant. The project, which began in July 2005, is being performed for Mountain State Carbon – a joint venture between Wheeling-Pittsburgh and Severstal North America.

Scope of work for the two-phased project includes performing complete through-wall repairs for 39 oven walls and end flue repairs for the remaining walls. Structural and collecting main upgrades, installation of gas collection piping, and replacement of code side and pusher side benches are also included in the contract.

Because the battery must remain in operation during construction, work on the north half required significant coordination with the plant’s operations in order to schedule repair work. During rebuilding, it was very important to keep the walls hot to assure that no contraction occurred. This heat requirement made demolition and rebuild activities at adjacent work areas very challenging. To overcome this challenge, a temporary support bridge was designed and installed to span the north half during repairs, allowing construction to take place while operations continued.

The Graycor Industrial team self-performed battery brick work and was responsible for heating the repair areas during construction, which required monitoring temperature around the clock.