Slip-formed concrete: why the tank was the hard part
The storage tank was built using slip-form concrete — a continuous-pour method where the formwork rises steadily as the concrete cures behind it, producing a cylindrical wall with no horizontal cold joints.
The reason it matters on a water structure: every cold joint is a potential seep path. A conventionally formed tank poured in lifts has a joint at every lift line. A slip-formed wall does not.
The reason it is demanding: once a slip-form pour starts, it does not stop. Concrete delivery, placement rate, rebar placement ahead of the rising form, and the cure rate behind it all have to stay in balance for the duration of the pour. A delayed truck is not an inconvenience; it is a cold joint in a structure specifically built to avoid them.
That is a coordination problem before it is a concrete problem, and coordination is the general contractor's job.
The CMU pump house
The pump house was built in concrete masonry unit — block construction, chosen for this application because it stands up to constant humidity, resists the corrosion that treatment chemicals accelerate, and needs almost nothing over its service life.
It is the part of the facility with mechanical, electrical and control systems inside it, so the structure and the trades have to be sequenced against each other rather than stacked in series.
What Pelican handled
- Site work — grading, access and preparation for both structures
- Foundations for the tank and the pump house
- Slip-formed concrete storage tank — forming, continuous pour, cure
- CMU pump house — block construction through to finish
- Trade coordination across the full build
- Foundation to finish as a single general contractor
One contractor accountable end to end, which on infrastructure work is the difference between a schedule and a sequence of arguments.
Why this project is worth showing
Most commercial general contractors in the Tri-Cities have not slip-formed a water containment structure. It is a narrow skill, it is unforgiving, and the work either holds water or it does not.
If your project involves structural concrete, public infrastructure, or anything where the inspection regime is stricter than standard commercial occupancy — in Richland or anywhere across the Tri-Cities — this is the relevant reference.
