Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

27 March 2012

Intro

Another day another site. Today it was a 3 hour…yes…3 hour drive one way to see a drilling site in Towanda, PA. In order to help their town prosper and grow / expand on the North bank of the Susquehanna river the town folk have dug into their pockets and joined forces with the federal government (part of Obama’s stimulus package) to install a water main under the river. This will connect fresh and foul water supply to the far side so they do not have to rely upon  storm drains and septic tanks. Department of agriculture has stakes in this small $1M project. Project is currently 1 month behind schedule and this is the contractor’s first project with USACE. Total length of bore is 1600ft (480m)

Conditions

Loose silt by river sides – line of pipeline runs under 1 x railway and a road. Extensive ground investigation material available from PENNDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transport) when the nearby road bridge was constructed.

Method

Large diameter steel sheaths hammered into the silty layers to prevent ‘frac out’ of the drilling fluids (bentonite) when drilling starts. Will try and attach a video of how it”s done. Once the sheath is in place a drill will be steered along the required path using electromagnetic positioning (all except in the middle of the river where they will be going ‘blind’.) The drill is extended out using flexible shafts.

Once the drill emerges at the far side of the river, an auger will be dragged back through the bore hole to widen it. The process will be repeated until it is the required diameter. At this point the plastic piping will be dragged through the hole to form the completed pipe line.

On site

Very few personnel required. Picked them up for not providing cover from view between the public and the welding operation. PE concurred and added to daily report accordingly. Witnessed a full rotation of positioning of steel sections, welding and driving before the 3 hour drive home……The process is likely to be repeated until the full depth is achieved at which point drilling will commence. I don’t think there will be much to see until the drill emerges at the far end and some more exciting engineering can begin.

Asside

The CEO of the company did not appreciate the fact that I found his video most entertaining. The fact that the word ‘boring’ appears repeatedly to a really intense soundtrack seemed incongruous to me.