Track sawing and stitch drilling at a storm culvert

Skilled engineers from a specialist diamond drilling and concrete sawing company worked against the clock and the tide to help ensure flood waters are managed in the Blackpool area.

D-Drill, which has offices across the UK including in Wigan, sent five members of its team to remove ten tonnes of concrete from an existing storm culvert at AMP 6 Anchorsholme Park.

The team, working on behalf of main contractor C2V, worked for four days solid from Friday through to Monday to remove the five metre by 1.5 metre blocks of concrete to assist in the construction of new storm-water detention tanks.

D-Drill, led by manager Neil Wood, used a combination of track sawing and stitch drilling to make sure the job was done as quickly as possible, creating two new openings in the concrete culvert sewer.

The openings were formed in tandem to speed up the process as any change in tide or weather conditions would have ground the operation to a halt and the culvert would have been submerged in water.

Neil said: “All works were carried out in a medium risk confined space environment. Both openings were completed at the same time to make sure we could get the job done as quickly as possible. In total, ten tonnes of concrete was carefully cut into sections and turfed out and removed.

“We achieved a nice clean cut with minimal disruption to the surrounding area and it was all removed in a controlled and safe manner, with no structural loss to the existing 1930s culvert.

“The client was very happy with the professionalism and the flexibility of the works as our operatives went that extra mile to bring this contract to a successful conclusion in such a limited timescale.”

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