Industrial Concrete and Foundations on Casper's East Side

Pump pads, pipe-rack piers and containment curbs make up most of the industrial concrete on Casper's east side, and they are poured under rules a commercial job never meets. The refinery at 5700 East Highway 20-26 has 30,000 barrels per day of capacity and runs primarily Wyoming and Rocky Mountain sweet crude. Around it, and along the Yellowstone Highway corridor, sit yards, shops and service buildings that depend on the same kinds of foundations. We build them: equipment pads, grade beams, pier caps, containment, truck aprons and the drainage that keeps spills where they belong.

Industrial owners buy certainty. They want the pour finished inside the shutdown, the anchor bolts where the drawings put them and the containment tested before product goes in. We give them yardage, sequence and a written plan for weather, access and safety up front, and then we keep to it. The work is concrete, steel, compaction and discipline, and the method is the same wherever there is a pad to pour.

Foundations for process equipment

Process equipment sits on concrete that has been designed for the load, the vibration and the temperature it will see. We build spread footings and mat pads for vessels and pumps, grade beams tying pier groups together, and pier caps for pipe racks. Cast-in-place structural concrete includes the forms, reinforcing, embedded plates and anchor bolts, set to templates and checked before the pour and again after it.

Grout, sleeves, sump boxes and curbs are small items that cause large problems when they are missed. We assemble a coordination drawing from the structural, civil and mechanical sets and walk it with the owner's engineer before the forms close. A pump pad that arrives without its sump or a bolt pattern that does not match the equipment is a failure of coordination, not of concrete.

What replacing old units teaches about cost

The refinery completed a two-year modernization of roughly $200 million, reported in October 2016, with a new crude unit replacing units built in 1928, 1948 and 1955, plus new tanks and a gas-fired heating plant. When new equipment replaces old, the cost is not just new foundations. There is demolition of the old foundations, hidden piping and conduit beneath them, contaminated or oil-stained soil, and tie-ins to systems that cannot be turned off for long.

We price those risks openly. Potholing and test pits go in the budget before the contract, and an allowance for unknowns is written into the bid, not discovered in the field. Shutdown labor costs more than normal labor, and the schedule is tied to equipment delivery. If a foundation has to wait for a vessel, we hold the forms and plan the pour for the day the crane arrives.

Live plant, tight windows

When the refinery completed its modernization it employed 145 people plus contractors, which gives some sense of how many trades share the site at once. Laydown space, crane paths, access gates and parking are shared, and the owner's coordinator decides who goes where. We attend the planning meetings, give daily look-aheads and request our concrete delivery slots in advance, since a pump truck blocking a main road in a plant can halt other work.

US 20, 26 and 87 leave I-25 at Beverly Street and run east along Yellowstone Highway through Evansville toward Glenrock, and Wyoming 258 (Curtis Street) gives access back to the interstate. Concrete and rebar deliveries use those roads, so we schedule around commute traffic and any plant shift changes. Our Evansville page covers the town on the corridor.

Tie-ins, cutting and coring in live plants

New concrete usually has to meet old. We saw-cut and core existing slabs for sleeves, sumps and tie-in dowels with concrete sawing, cutting and coring crews that scan for rebar and embedded conduit first. Hand digging near buried lines is the rule within the clearance distance, and hydro-excavation or vacuum methods are used where the owner requires them.

Hot work, confined space and lockout are the owner's systems and we follow them. The construction trade partners carry the training the owner requires, attend the permit meetings and stop work when conditions change. Silica dust from cutting is controlled with water or vacuum, and the cut slurry is collected, not washed to a drain.

Owners of heavy industrial ground

The east side serves oil, gas and midstream owners first, along with the service companies that support them. Their questions are practical: how soon can you start, how long will the pad cure before we hang equipment, and how do we contain a leak. We answer those in writing before we sign a contract.

Oilfield yard work northwest of town has a different character, and our notes on the Salt Creek oilfield cover it. For distribution and rail-served users, the Casper Logistics Hub is the better match. Whatever the site, we confirm early who the owner is, who signs for changes and who accepts the finished concrete.

Spills, traffic and the rules of the fence line

Industrial concrete brings fuel, hydraulic oil and cement slurry onto ground that may drain toward a ditch. We stage refueling on lined pads, keep spill kits on every machine and wash out mixers in a contained area. Trucks entering the plant follow the owner's speed limits and marked lanes, and traffic on the highway frontage gets flaggers when deliveries turn in.

Cold and wind get the same respect as chemicals. Crews rotate out of the weather, heaters are placed with proper ventilation and fresh concrete is covered before the temperature drops. Nobody works alone in a trench, and every excavation is inspected by a competent person before the first worker steps in.

Plan your east Casper industrial project

Send the drawings, the owner's safety requirements and the shutdown window. We will return a coordination review, a pour plan and a price. Contact us about your east side project.

Questions Owners Ask

How soon can a pump or tank pad be loaded after the pour?

It depends on the design strength, the mix and the temperature. Cylinders break at specified ages, and the engineer sets the strength required before equipment is set or anchor bolts are tightened. We can use higher early strength mixes when a shutdown requires it.

How do you control anchor bolt positions?

We use steel templates tied to the cage, survey the bolts before the pour and check them again once the concrete is placed. The template stays until the concrete stiffens. Final positions are recorded for the owner's engineer.

What do you do about oil-stained or contaminated soil?

We follow the owner's soil management plan, keep suspect spoil separate and do not mix it with clean fill. Testing and disposal are the owner's responsibility under their plan; we handle the excavation and hauling as directed.

Can you cut and core inside an operating plant?

Yes, with scanning for rebar and embedded conduit, water or vacuum for dust control, and the owner's permits in place. We follow the plant's lockout and hot-work procedures and stop if conditions change.

How are containment pads checked before use?

They are formed with slope to a sump, joints are sealed, and the surface is cured and allowed to harden. Many owners require a water test; we schedule it and document it.

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