This project consisted of the rehabilitation of the Kessler Canyon Tunnel at the Kennecott Utah Copper (KUC) smelter site. The existing tunnel was a 17’x17’ cast-in-place box culvert, approximately 1,500 feet long, which was built in the early 1920s. Rehabilitation involved lining the tunnel with concrete using a mining advancing tunnel form system, then placing 8,000 CY of concrete in a confined space.

KUC’s existing box culvert runs directly beneath several of their smelter buildings. This tunnel was built in the 1920s to handle the runoff from the Oquirrh Mountains that drains into Kessler Canyon just south of the smelter. Over time, the concrete inside of the tunnel started to deteriorate, and in some areas, the surface concrete was delaminating from the twisted bar reinforcement.

KUC requested proposals to install a Multi-Plate culvert through the tunnel and fill the remaining annular space with controlled low-strength material (CLSM). W.W. Clyde & Co. submitted an innovative alternate proposal to construct a 10.5’ diameter cast-in-place concrete tunnel utilizing our mining advancing tunnel form system.

Project Scope Involved

Smelter Kessler Tunnel
   • 8,000 cubic yards of concrete using a mining advancing tunnel form system

Smelter Material & Anode building
   • Minor asphalt work

Smelter EDX Building
   • Minor asphalt work

Environmental Slide Gate
   • 18-inch storm drain slide gate

Mine Ore Sorting Pad & Road Improvements
   • 14,000 cubic yard concrete pad

Smelter Acid Truck Loading Facility
   • Constructed new loading structure and refurbished existing

MAP Oxygen Line
   • 5,200 lineal feet of 4-inch carbon steel oxygen line

Power Plant URS Clear and Grub
   • Clear and grub 19 acres

Tailings Section 21 Pump Station

Concentrator Septic Tank

Smelter Gate Traffic Control

Mine Low Grade Ore Haul
   • Screen low grade ore and construct 240 ton haul truck road

Mine Flood Remediation

Mine 6190 Sewer Line
   • 830 lineal feet of 2-inch & 4-inch PVC sewer pipe

Power Plant Coal Conveyor Replacement

Mine 6880 Pebble Crusher