New Boiler Installation

This university heats its buildings with steam. A central boiler plant feeds a network of tunnels that carries steam to classrooms, labs and offices across campus. When the plant needed a new boiler our Rapid City boiler repair and Process Piping team completed the installation.

We set a new Superior boiler with a crane and installed an economizer, which pulls heat out of the exhaust and puts it back into the boiler feedwater. Our pipefitters ran the new piping and tied the boiler into the plant. The job was scoped at more than 850 crew hours. We managed the electrician, the insulation contractor and Johnson Controls ourselves, so the university dealt with one contractor and got one finished boiler room back.

Two additions came up during the job. We upgraded the burner controls on one of the plant’s existing Superior boilers from an Autoflame Mk6 to a Mk8, so the older boiler runs on current controls alongside the new one. We also added a sample cooler and a chemical feed pot, which give the boiler operators a safe way to pull water samples and add treatment chemicals.

We’ve stayed on this campus ever since. In 2019 we set combustion on the boilers and added battery backup to the Autoflame panel. In 2021 we replaced another boiler the same way: crane set, electrical, controls and insulation, all under one contract. In 2024 and 2025 we supplied and installed two more new 1.7 million BTU boilers at a second campus building.

Most of the work since then has been keeping the plant running. Every year we handle the state-required internal inspections and the combustion and smoke testing. We’ve rebuilt refractory around a burner, replaced leaking tubes, and replaced a feedwater valve, a fuel oil pump, an oil valve actuator and a fill valve on the deaerator tank. Most years we also survey the steam traps in the tunnels and buildings, then replace the ones that have failed.

“Rasmussen Mechanical Services goes above and beyond to ensure we keep our facilities running. We had a recent emergency breakdown to our steam systems and Rasmussen was on-site working with us to figure out a solution to get our Dining and Housing facilities back up and running with hot water.”
Jerilyn Roberts – South Dakota School of Mines & Technology