Knight Const. & Supply, Inc. (KCS) provides hydroelectric dam construction and repair services throughout the United States. KCS is a top hydroelectric dam contractor for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), Public Utility Departments (PUDs) and municipalities throughout the US.
KCS has been active on river systems since 1986, with hundreds of hydroelectric dam repair projects completed. Our superintendents and tradesmen have extensive experience in nearly every system on the typical dam. We have completed hydroelectric dam maintenance projects at nearly every major dam operated by the USACE in the western United States.
The USACE has awarded KCS multiple, short-fused emergency repair projects on their navigation lock gates. In one instance, KCS was asked to take over a failing contractor’s project mid-way through the critical major navigation lock outage period. KCS successfully stepped in to complete this third contract within the outage period. At the time of this event, KCS was working on two other major lock outage projects.
KCS supports our customer’s hydroelectric construction projects in all areas of millwright work and field and shop welding. KCS employs millwrights and millwright/welders who are also welders certified under AWS codes for structural steel, fracture critical, aluminum and stainless steel welding, along with ASME Sect. IX BPVC for pipe welding.
KCS is expert in the field of hydraulic steel structures, starting with that first gate repair project in 1986, through to our recently completed generator bulkhead project with Avista Corp. We have experience working on nearly every design of water control gate in every different style of water conduit, including miter and vertical lift navigation lock gates, spillway gates, roll gates, chain roller intake gates and high pressure outlet gates. Projects have included design/build gate and actuator replacement, major in-place structural component replacement, trunnion pin and bearing upgrades, quoin seals and actuating systems.
With our in-house electrical department and electricians, KCS completes shop and field electrical work and controls installations. With our controls suppliers, we have supplied and installed controls for hydraulic structure actuators for more than 40 individual gates, several of which were design/build. Our experience includes upgrading mechanical generator governor controls to digital governor controls on most of the hydroelectric dams operated by the Walla Walla, Portland and Omaha districts of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
We are proud of our reputation for providing successful Value Engineering Cost Proposals (VECP) that have provided our customers significant cost savings along with product quality improvements.
KCS has completed and tested many large custom crane modernization and several replacement projects (up to 600 tons) at hydroelectric dam facilities in the western United States. See Cranes and Hoists.
We have completed generator fire protection system installations and upgrades on the Snake River Dams and several dams on the Columbia River. See Fire Protection.