Thompson Pump Dewaters a Part of the Kansas River

Thompson Pump was called to provide assistance on a pump upgrade on an existing raw water intake structure project on the Kansas River, in Johnson County, Kansas.

The contractor had trouble dewatering a coffer dam that was installed to allow crews to gain access to the pump tubes and permanent pumps that would feed river water into the Johnson County Water Treatment Plant. Until the coffer dam could be successfully dewatered, the job was at a complete standstill.

The contractor installed sheet piles around the area to block off the section of the river to be pumped, and to dewater the area where work was to take place. Although the sheet piling was installed deep enough to hit bedrock, a large amount of river water was still entering through the sheet piling at the riverbed.

Thompson Pump provided four units to help successfully dewater the coffer dam:

• A Thompson 6-inch compressor-assisted open trash/sewage pump with Enviroprime System®, capable of a maximum of 1,750-gallons per minute.

• A Thompson 6-inch compressor-assisted solids handling high pressure pump with Enviroprime System®, capable of a maximum of 2,550-gallons per minute.

• A Thompson 12-inch compressor-assisted solids handling high pressure pump with Enviroprime System® , capable of a maximum of 7,500-gallons per minute.

• And, a 6-inch electric submersible pump.

Thompson Pump was able to immediately supply all the pumps along with other accessories, such as Thompson Galvanized Pipe. The pumps were started first thing in the morning in order to remove the river water that had collected in the coffer dam overnight. With all four pumps operating, the coffer dam would be successfully dewatered in 30-minutes. Once the dewatering was complete, the repair crews would then enter the coffer dam and begin their repairs. At that time, the Thompson 6-inch compressor-assisted open trash/sewage pump and the Thompson 6-inch compressor-assisted solids handling high pressure pump were turned off, leaving the Thompson 12-inch compressor-assisted solids handling high pressure pump and the 6-inch electric submersible pump operating to maintain dryness in the coffer dam as repairs were made throughout the day.