91-15: Refurbishing America's First Hyperbolic Cooling Tower

When completed in 1962, Kentucky Power Company's Big Sandy Unit 1 cooling tower was the first built in this country using large-scale natural draft design with a concrete hyperbolic shell. The decision to replace the internal components recently after 26 years of operation offered the opportunity to utilize current technology and materials. This tower's maintenance and operations history, and general condition at time of rebuild will be reviewed.