On Sept. 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene hit the Southeastern U.S. with historically heavy rain and wind.
Unlike most hurricanes that ravage coastal areas, Helene delivered its most devastating damage to places far from either of our seacoasts. In South Georgia and especially in rural Western North Carolina, flooding from overflowing rivers and rain literally wiped away homes, towns and lives. Few people could have expected such devastation so far from a major body of water.
While all of this was going on, here in our shop, we were finishing up the rebuilds of two 50-year-old damaged gearboxes from one of the largest water pumping plants in the world — the W.G. Huxtable Pumping Station, which protects the livelihoods and lives of thousands of vulnerable residents in the rural Mississippi Delta.
Operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Huxtable serves to prevent flooding in Lee County, Arkansas, a mostly rural county that includes 1.2 million acres of farmland. Bound on the east by the Mississippi River, Lee County also has two navigable rivers.
According to the latest U.S. Census Quick Facts (from 2022), the county population is 8,600, with median household income of $33,801 and 35.1 percent of the population living below the poverty line.
The importance of keeping Huxtable ready to pump is undeniable. And the key to readiness is keeping all ten of its identical 50-year-old gearboxes operational. Though only eight are required to pump, two more must always be kept operational in case of a gearbox failure.
The two rebuilt gearboxes sitting in our shop on Sept. 27 ready to be returned to Huxtable were not our first Huxtable repairs.
Their predecessors were gearboxes #9 and #10, which had gone into failure mode shortly before the country shut down for the pandemic. The importance of the two failed gearboxes lay in the fact that of Huxtable’s ten identical 50- year-old gearboxes, eight must be operational for the station to be able to
pump. With only eight remaining operational, a failure in just one would have left Huxtable unable to pump.
Knowing that lives and livelihoods depended on returning these gearboxes to use as quickly as possible, while most of the country was shut down, we worked day and night throughout much of 2021 to repair them. Even though the repairs turned out to be much more complicated than anticipated, we were able to return them to Huxtable as good as new two months before our original deadline.
Back to the two Huxtable gearboxes in our shop.
Since all ten of the gearboxes at Huxtable are worn and old, we were contracted by USACE to rebuild the remaining eight, two at a time, leaving eight operational gearboxes but with no back-ups. As with our first repair, we understood the urgency of completing the rebuilds in a record amount of time.
“We removed gearboxes #1 and #2 earlier this year and disassembled and completed a thorough inspection of them at our shop,” said Atlanta Gear Works Vice-President Craig Massa. “As in 2020, the initial contract was for basic refurbishment, bearing and seal replacement only, but we determined that the gears and other components were worn, indicative of 50 years of use, and needed more extensive repairs.”
Though none of the eight gearboxes covered by the new contract are in failure mode, Massa feels that based on the issues of the first two and knowing they need eight good gearboxes to pump, the plant operators are “being proactive.”
“They were concerned they could have a massive failure,” he added.
So, after a contract modification, we replaced all the gearing and refurbished the thrust bearings and backstops.
The contract to repair the remaining six runs through 2026. Thanks to our recently added second shift and new Kapp Niles Gear Profile Grinding Machine ZP 24 in combination with our two other Kapp Niles grinders, we’ll be making all the needed new gearing in-house before pulling the old gearboxes from Huxtable, thus cutting down on total repair time while ensuring the highest quality.
“Work like this reminds me of why we chose industrial gearboxes as our life’s work,” said AGW President Jack Conway. “Everyone in our company understands and values the contribution our work makes to the lives and livelihoods of our fellow citizens.”
We’re happy to say that #1 and #2 are now back online at Huxtable, ready to protect the surrounding area from the catastrophic flooding that we now know can occur anywhere, even hundreds of miles from any of our coastlines.
