Coal Creek Station operates two late 1970s vintage generators with three mechanical draft cooling towers, each 42 feet high and 225 feet in diameter. After 40 years of use, cooling tower #91 was showing its age. Demolishing and rebuilding the entire cooling tower would have been costly and required long downtime. Instead, an extensive restoration and rebuild of the cooling tower was planned during a 6.5-week shutdown in May, 2017.

Rebuilding the cooling tower required the following steps:

1. Demolition of the exterior lumber and sheet metal structure
2. Concrete rehabilitation
3. Installing the new field-erected exterior FRP structure

In the fall of 2016, the tower was shut down for one week to inspect and plan an efficient shutdown the following May. A visual inspection and sounding survey was conducted to identify defects, estimate quantities, develop a repair strategy, and create a detailed project schedule.

In total, over 5,000 hours were dedicated to the concrete repair and protection operations without any safety incidents.

The International Concrete Repair Institute recognized the project with a 2018 Award of Merit in the Repair of Industrial Structures.