Argentine Main Pump Station
- Mar 16, 2023
- 1 min read
Updated: May 24, 2024
Location: Kansas City, Kansas
Award: Infrastructure
Project Team
Owner: City of Kansas City KS Contractor: Kissick Construction Architect/Engineer: Michels/Cole Concrete: Fordyce Concrete Slag Cement: Holcim
Located in Kansas City, KS, USA, the Argentine Main Pump Station was one of three pump station upgrades that the Unified Government (Corps of Engineers) perused to increase flood protection in Argentine, Armourdale, and the West Bottoms. It was a $33 million project between all three locations. The Argentine pump station was the largest of the three. They were originally constructed between 70 to 100 years ago. The total structure (Argentine) is 57 x 59 ft (17 x 18 m).
For the project, 4500 and 5000 psi (31 and 35 MPa) ternary mixture designs were used for the walls, foundation, and mass concrete. The use of slag cement helped control the internal temperature of the concrete to keep the mass concrete placements on schedule. In addition, slag cement helped achieve early day compressive strength.
With the use of 15 to 20% slag cement, early compressive strengths were achieved. With early strength, production was sped up by 15% to complete the project.
Application Type
% Slag Cement Replacement | 15-20% Slag – Grade 100 |
% Portland Cement | 60-70% |
% Portland Limestone Cement | |
% Other SCM (if applicable) | 15% Class F Fly Ash – Ash Grove Durapoz F |
Aggregate | High Quality Limestone |
Water/cement ratio | 0.41 |
7-day strengths | 3850 psi |
28-day strengths | 6000 psi+ |
It's impressive how the Argentine Main Pump Station upgrade is part of a larger effort to enhance flood protection. The use of slag cement in the concrete mixture is an interesting detail, and it's great to see sustainability being considered in such infrastructure projects. For more on this and similar projects, Scritchy Scratchy provides a wealth of information.
It's impressive to see how this pump station project highlights long-term infrastructure improvements and smart engineering for flood protection. After reading stories like this, I usually play Subway Surfers which is a fast-paced endless runner game that keeps my reflexes sharp and is always fun to revisit.