Paradise by the Construction Light
Construction of the Paradise Combined Cycle Plant near Drakesboro, Kentucky, is nearing 75 percent completion.
JUNE 30, 2016—“The project is within the approved schedule and budget and should be online in the second quarter of 2017,” says Roger Waldrep, general manager, TVA Major Projects.
Recently the upper sections of the main exhaust stacks were set in place establishing the final skyline image of the plant.
By the Numbers
- To date, approximately 775 TVA employees and contractors have installed 1,326,000 linear feet of cable, 71,000 linear feet of underground pipe and 60,000 feet of above-ground pipe.
- In addition, they have erected 4,400 tons of structural steel, poured 35,000 cubic yards of concrete and excavated or backfilled 286,000 cubic yards of earth.
- Since construction began, approximately 1.7 million man-hours have been dedicated to this project.
- Once complete, this natural gas plant will provide 1,025 megawatts of power for the Tennessee Valley.
“I’m most proud of the fact that we are able to incorporate lessons learned from the construction of the John Sevier combined cycle plant. We had enough delay between that plant and here to really do a good job of incorporating those things into the Paradise specifications in order to deliver a really good plant,” adds Waldrep.
“This plant will benefit TVA by providing reliable, flexible power to the grid for dispatch, and it will be the most efficient plant that we’ve built to date,” he concludes.