Walsh Construction Co. and PCL Civil Constructors, in a joint venture partnership, currently are building the Q-B Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge. The Connecticut Department of Transportation awarded the $417 million project last year. The program is a federally-funded mega program called the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program. The Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, a 7.5-mile stretch of highway that spans the Quinnipiac River, broke ground in December 2009 with an expected completion date of mid-2015.
The use of water-based down-the-hole hammer drilling is a relatively new, cost-efficient technique. This technology has been used for the first time in India to make a water curtain system in an unlined cavern for the Vizag underground crude oil storage cavern project.
Three SR-90 hydraulic rotary rigs and two single-auger rotary rigs (SR70 and SR80) are at work in New Orleans on the biggest deep soil-mixing job ever performed in the United States.
The existing south access road to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, known as Doyle Drive or Route 101, is structurally and seismically unsafe, and requires replacement. Built in 1936, Doyle Drive has reached the end of its serviceable life. The foundations for the new South Viaduct Bridge presented quite a challenge to Malcolm Drilling Co. due to the requirement for deep, large-diameter drilled shafts installed adjacent to historic landmarks. Drilled shafts with 12-foot diameters were constructed to depth of approximately 200 feet.
Pile driving hammers shall be of the size needed to develop the energy required to drive the piles at a blow count that does not exceed 10 blows per inch at the required ultimate pile capacity. The intent is to select the size of hammer at normal operating condition to be sufficient. Photo courtesy of Bauer Pileco.
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, is drilling a deep geologic test well at the Fort Pulaski National Monument in Georgia. When completed, the well will be about 1,500 feet deep.
Years ago, when I started in the drilling business, training of new hands was almost non-existent. Drillers expected new hands to know what to do and how to do it without any instruction – almost as if they were supposed to be born with the knowledge of how to make the tongs bite or slip the drill line.
There is an underlying message in my article this month. You cannot turn on the radio or television without hearing about the drilling industry these days. It does not matter that it’s offshore oil drilling – for Joe Public, it is drilling.
RSS