Press Release

 

Canal Equipment to Slipform 20 Meters Wide in a Single Pass

 

All American Canal paver

The All-American Canal paver fully assembled at GOMACO’s new canal assembly and testing site in Ida Grove, Iowa, USA.

Ida Grove, Iowa – GOMACO Corporation has built a massive new slipform canal paver capable of paving 20 meters wide in a single pass. It was built to slipform a portion of the new All-American Canal in the United States. Coffman Specialties, in San Diego, California, the contractor responsible for paving a portion of the new canal, commissioned the paver from GOMACO, along with a water stop inserting machine and work bridge. The project will be completed in two slipform passes with the canal paver slipforming a 12 meter long, 2:1 or 1.75:1 slope and 7.6 meter wide canal floor in each pass.

The canal paver is a massive machine with three meter tall framework and stands on four meter long, 762 millimeter wide and 1016 millimeter high tracks. It features a unique concrete distribution system that is a paddle system with baffles that run along the slope of the canal. The paddles move the concrete down the slope and the baffles collect the concrete to keep all of it from sliding down to the bottom of the slope. A spreader-plow, on the bottom 7.6 meter wide section of the canal floor, will move the concrete across that width.

The slope of the All-American Canal is not constant and the length of the slope is variable. The paver features a fixed end car and an adjustable end car for the changing requirements. The adjustable end car can be hydraulically slid in or out while the paver is stopped to accommodate the different lengths. It allows the changes to be made without having to add or remove any sections of framework. The changing slope length also changes the angle of slope on the canal and the pivot point on the paver. A powered wedge makes the machine adjustable to the different angles.

Canal specifications require a longitudinal and transverse fracture joint every 4.6 meters. Four massive spools of cross-shaped, polyvinyl chloride rubber strips will be mounted to the paver and the material inserted into the 102 millimeter thick canal, on the go, during the slipforming process.

A water stop inserting machine will follow the paver inserting the transverse water stop. The rubber water stop material will be inserted into the wet concrete by a specially-designed inserter mechanism that will ride on a carriage mounted to the frame. A large spool of the water stop material will also be attached to the framework. As the carriage moves down the canal wall, it will pull the water stop material off the roll and down the slope. At the bottom of the canal, a worker will anchor the material to the canal floor. The carriage, with the inserter mechanism, will then move up the canal wall opening up a trough approximately 44 millimeter wide by 25 millimeter deep and place the water stop material in the created trough. A 5.2 meter long finishing cylinder and float pan follows the inserter to help finish and seal the surface of the canal.

The final piece of equipment in the canal paving process is a GOMACO work bridge. It mirrors the paver and water stop inserting machine in several features to match the changing dimensions of the canal, including a fixed and hydraulically adjustable end car and powered wedge. A GOMACO Auto-Float® will be mounted to the back of the work bridge and will provide the final finish on the canal’s concrete lining.

The final phase of the equipment’s design and manufacturing was full machine assembly at GOMACO’s new canal testing site. Each piece of the equipment was fully assembled and then placed on the pier so engineers could test its various features and performance capabilities. The canal equipment was later disassembled and shipped to California.