PRB Coal Rail Receiving Project
for the
880 MWe Meramec Plant

Client

Ameren Services Company (d.b.a. Union Electric Company)
1901 Chouteau Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63166

Completion Date

June, 2002

Project Description

The Meramec Plant consists of Units No. 1 to 4 commissioned from 1953 to 1961.  Total plant rated generating capacity is approximately 880 MWe.  Midwest coal was delivered by barge.  To reduce fuel cost while meeting new emission standards, the Meramec Plant increasingly relied on Powder River Basin (PRB) coal.  To further reduce fuel cost, Ameren undertook to alter the delivery scheme and receive PRB coal directly via unit trains.

As a follow-up to a study by Energy Associates that investigated the feasibility of a rail receiving system, Ameren Services undertook a $64 million project to add a high capacity coal handling system at the Meramec Plant.  In addition to Energy Associates as the lead engineering firm, Ameren engaged a team of technical firms.  Design Nine was responsible for the rail loop itself.  Reitz and Jens examined the geotechnical issues related to the loop track and foundations.  The loop track rail is routed over sluiced ash ponds that were layered over soft silty soils.  Since the rail loop is being routed beneath transmission lines in the ash pond areas, the Transmission and Distribution Department of Ameren Services investigated the need to elevate lines that cross the loop.  Ameren Services designed the 60-foot deep rail dumper pit following Energy Associates preliminary drawings.  Frucon design some of the foundations and the new river cells.  PC&E is responsible for electrical power and I&C design.  Energy Associates was responsible for the detail design of mechanical systems, structural steel, and some foundations.�

Pictured are the 4,000 tph radial stacker and barge loader designed by Energy Assoicates.� Two (2) identical radial stackers were constructed, one (1) for the plant itself and the other to stockpile coal for the barge loading operatgion.� The barge loader is feed by a one-kilometer long conveyor from the inland stockpile.� The conveyor features a fluid drive to start, stop, and slow the discharge to barges as needed by the barge loading operator.� The barge loading boom conveyor is fitted with a bifocated chute that swivels to both trim the load into barges� and quickly switch from loading one barge to the next.