Sandvik Rig Takes on San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge Demolition
Environmentally friendly precision drilling to bottom of the bay
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has been replaced by an adjacent $6.4 billion structure that claims the title of world’s widest bridge. While the new bridge is impressive, so is the demolition job being undertaken by Florida contractor Contract Drilling & Blasting LLC. The company’s challenging task is to make a pier disappear cleanly beneath the bay bottom without disturbing the bay’s avian and marine life.
A Sandvik Ranger DX800 drill rig was selected for the challenging job. When in place, drilling took place 10 hours a day, five days a week. What made the drilling especially tricky, aside from environmental considerations, was the relatively thinness of the walls. Drilling a hole 2.75 inches in diameter for up to 86 feet with little to no deviation is not a simple task.