Structural Assessment for Coal Breaker Reconstruction/Stabilization

ECKLEY MINER'S VILLAGE

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Eckley Miner’s Village, Weatherly, PA

SSM's structural engineers assessed the existing condition of the timber-framed structure and provided engineering analysis and design to replace or reconstruct a portion of the coal breaker, called the tipple. (A tipple is a structure used at a mine to load the extracted product (e.g., coal, ores) for transport, typically into railroad hopper cars). SSM provided detailed structural designs, technical specifications, STAAD models for the tipple frame for the breaker and for the pole structure. In addition we provided construction services.

Founded in 1854, Eckley is an example of a planned nineteenth century coal mining town. It is a community, or coal “patch town,” which provided mining families with the basic necessities such as housing and medical care, as well as basic amenities like a store, a school and churches. Companies often designed and constructed industrial communities to house their employees in close proximity to the collieries, or mining operations, for which they worked. Such mining towns were built to attract other mining families to live and work among the coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania. While the company greatly influenced the lives of its village residents, and each family member faced challenges and difficulties every day. The way in which they faced these challenges is the history of the region that is studied, preserved and interpreted.

Since 1970, Eckley has been owned and operated as a museum by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The Molly Maguires a 1970 film was filmed in Eckley in 1969. The wooden "coal breaker" featured heavily in the film. The filming of the movie resulted in the town's being saved from demolition, and it was afterward turned into a mining museum under the control of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Structural Engineering for New Municipal Offices

East Cocalico Township

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Structural engineering for a new 10,000 square foot facility to house all municipal offices and a complete full-time police department.

SSM developed the schematic plans and, with the assistance of a consulting architect, designed the facility. 

The building includes the complete police department, including holding cells, secure evidence room, laboratory, interrogation/interview rooms, as well as normal police offices.  The second floor housed all the municipal offices, including meeting rooms and offices for all public officials.

Adaptive Re-Use

KUTZTOWN TRAIN STATION

Borough of Kutztown

Train Station

Kutztown PA

SSM provided engineering for upgrades to train station that was built in approximately 1870.  The upgrades include installation of restrooms, closets, new HVAC system, as well as insulation of walls, floor, and roof.  The project also included improving the lighting, providing ADA compliant access to the building, and relocating the boarding platform.  The large freight room in one section of the structure will become a meeting room for the Borough Council.

Concept Design for Probable Maximum Flood

Reading Area Water Authority

Reading, Pennsylvania

LAKE ONTELAUNE DAM | READING AREA WATER AUTHORITY

Lake Ontelaunee Dam, built mid-1920, has stood for over 90 years supplying drinking water to the City of Reading and surrounding areas. Pennsylvania Code (Chapter 105) now requires most dam owners to upgrade to new flood standards or breach their dams. 

SSM’s team of professional engineers (hydrologist, geotechnical and civil), geologists (geophysicist, structural and hydrogeological), surveyors, GIS technicians and construction specialists completed a Concept Design to fortify Lake Ontelaunee Dam to safely comply with design criteria for a Probable Maximum Flood (PMF).  The Concept Design was prepared for the Reading Area Water Authority in response to the PADEP – Division of Dam Safety’s requirements to bring Lake Ontelaunee Dam into compliance. 

The dam consists of a 544 foot uncontrolled ogee crest concrete spillway and a 2,890 foot earthen embankment section.  Under the PMF criteria, the earthen embankment will perform as an emergency spillway.  To fortify the embankment and prevent it from eroding away during a PMF event, its upstream face needs to be thickened and its downstream slope requires hardening with Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC).  However, prior to RCC installation, subsurface soils need to be stabilized to support the proposed overtopping engineering controls and subjected PMF forces.  In addition, the team addressed complications created by State Highway 73 which traverses the top of the dam with its guiderail system that raised the PMF.

In developing the most cost effective solution for the Authority, SSM evaluated several technologies and their subsequent costs or risks in addition to RCC including:  articulated concrete block, 1,000 linear feet of culvert beneath Route 73, dam height reduction, a parapet wall option and a hardened artificial turf like system. Stability analysis, geotechnical investigations, environmental assessments, underwater dam inspections, and geophysical and hydrogeological studies were included with the Design Concept.

LAKE ONTELAUNEE | READING AREA WATER AUTHORITY