PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
This important federal project, under the auspices of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, repels the migration of non-native fish species from the Mississippi River into the Great Lakes. In order to preserve the ecosystem and game fishing populations, the Asian Carp must be 100 percent excluded from the Great Lakes system. This project included a large amount of specialty electrical work and a support building to house all of the equipment. An array of electrodes was installed underwater, and a large backup generator built to keep the system from shutting down. Equipment included pulsators, power supplies, extensive bus bars, as well as monitors and controls. The pulsators are cooled by a custom build heat exchanger that uses water from the canal.
Building the world’s largest fish barrier was an ambitious undertaking. This electric fish barrier is ten times larger, in size and power, than any previous fish barrier. E.P. Doyle worked with the design team to reach a plan that was both constructible and within the project’s budget. An E.P. Doyle employee that was involved with the original pilot study used his civil engineering experience to make suggestions on design improvements.