D-Drill Battles the Elements to Speedily Remove Railway Bridge

25 May 2010

Despite initial set-backs D-Drill safely helped to replace a railway bridge in Barmouth for Amco Rail in just 6 hours. The works for the project started on Friday 12th March, and D-Drill arrived midday on the Saturday when they were due to start their part of the job. However, the site engineers experienced delays the night before and so the D-Drill team had to wait in the cold and rain for twelve hours before they could start and by then it was the middle of the night. Steve Furley, D-Drill Bridgend Branch Manager, said “The delay obviously created a great deal of discomfort and anxiety for my team before we even started our work. However, despite the elements we performed well and completed the task two hours ahead of schedule, which Amco commended us for.”

The job involved simultaneously diamond drilling six 75mm diameter holes vertically down through pre-drilled 600mm thick pre-cast concrete cill units, and then to a further depth of 3.25 metres into masonry bridge abutments. The drilling was done simultaneously in order to complete the works in the allotted time-slot, if only two people had done the job it would have taken a few days which was not an option, therefore D-Drill called on their resources to complete it in as short a time as possible. D-Drill’s expertise ensured that the most suitable drilling technique was chosen for the job. Diamond drilling was the only option available in order to drill to the required depth, if percussive drilling had been chosen it would have caused considerable disturbance to the foundations of the abutments.

The drilling was carried out using six WEKA BK34 Model coring rigs which were powered independently by the main contractor’s six generators. Each operator was provided with a selection of 75mm diameter core bits in various lengths. This enabled the team to drill to optimum depths of approximately one meter; the drilling process was then repeated by altering extension rods at 500mm in length. Due to the fact that the work was completed at height a safe working platform was installed with safety handrails, and the operators carried out the drilling while being harnessed and tethered to the handrails for the total duration of the works.

D-Drill were selected for the job because Steve Furley had previously carried out complex and high profile contracts for the project engineer Mark O’Leary. With just seven days notice Mark contacted Steve because he knew he could trust D-Drill to get the job done in the strict allotted time-slot.

Steve Furley said, “I think the project was a total success and I am quite confident that when a similar contract arises we will most certainly be considered for carrying out the diamond drilling part of the works.”

(as published in PDi magazine Volume 10 • No. 3 June – August 2010)

Back to news