WorldWide Drilling Resource

Heavy Traffic, Simple Solution Adapted from Information by SIMONA CREOS, an energy supplier, was charged with the difficult tasks of renewing the power supply to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, and ensuring the growing energy demand could be met. The challenge was completing the project without restricting the constant flow of city traffic. The installation of a new 220 kilovolt (kV) high-voltage cable over a total length of more than seven miles involved an overhead cable for a distance of five miles and the rest with cable laid underground. The new power lines passed through highly sensitive urban districts, and construction work was performed in two phases. Because of the high volume of traffic, the density of residential development, and the green-belt recreational area, CREOS and Schroeder & Associés decided to perform the construction work by horizontal directional drilling (HDD) with SIMONA ® PE (polyethylene pipes) 100 RC (reverse circulation)-Line Pipes. The HDD method of drilling was chosen because of its usefulness in boring under sur- faces and waterways in trenchless pipeline construction. Detailed information about the soil or rock conditions is crucial to the technical and commercial success of the method. The pipes CREOS used had to meet the following requirements: high flex- ibility for insertion in the trench; no corrosion; high-stress crack resistance; high resistance to point loads, such as stones and fragments; increased resistance to slow crack growth; suitability for the HDD laying technique. The HDD method allowed line renewal without any major hindrance to city traffic. The SIMONA ® PE 100 RC-Line Pipe was used as a contain- ment pipe for other empty cable con- duits. Within the pipe, a pipe bundle was also drawn in, comprising pipe trains which were later used to pull in the high-voltage cables. Over 25,000 feet of pipe was laid. With the aid of HDD drilling, the challenging construction project was carried out successfully without having any detrimental effect on public life. DIR Tales from the Field by Jeremy C. Wire Geoconsultants, Inc. The Sample Man One of the tasks required for proper water well design where alluvial materials such as clay, sand, and gravel are involved is to determine the gradation of particle sizes for design of the gravel pack and screen slot sizing using a method known as sieve analysis. This activity is usually farmed out to a labo- ratory specializing in this work. For many years, we used a technician named Herb who worked for a testing lab, but would “moonlight” to provide this service for us. In retirement, he continued to do the work from home. We suspected he liked the extra money to feed one of his passions which involved a bit of gambling in a friendly card game, or betting money on horses. When we had a set of samples to run, we would telephone him, and the conversation usually was: “Herb, we have some samples for you; we are in no great hurry to get the results, so come get them when you can.” He would reply: “I will be over in a day or two . . .” and would hang up. We never took this statement seriously, and those of us waiting around would speculate on how soon he would arrive. Sure enough, he would usually appear to get the samples in about 45 minutes, eager to make some money for later activities. He noted the results should be available in a day or two. Sometimes there was a delay, as we suspect the samples were first dried in his wife’s oven, between times when more impor- tant domestic use for this facility prevailed. Generally, he would return with the results several days later, and we would send him a check - occasionally made out to a different entity, but we never questioned why. This arrangement went on for many years, and the advantage was that very consistent results from the analyses could be obtained, which could easily be compared between wells drilled many years apart. Finally, Herb decided he didn’t want any more work, possibly because his wife complained too much about use of the oven, so we set up our own equipment for the sieve analysis. This provides satisfactory results, but is not as interesting or fun as when we dealt with “The Sample Man”. Jeremy Jeremy Wire may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com EXB New & Used Bits, HDD Bits & Tools, Drag Bits & Wings, Bolt-On Drag Bits, Reverse Circulation Tools, Hole Openers, Claw Bits, Stabilizers, Subs, Custom Tooling & Welding, Hammer Bits, Drill Collars, Pipe Wipers, and Drill Pipe. Office: (661) 834-4348 Rod Henderson / Eran Henderson 661-201-6259 • 661-330-0790 sales@bitcobits.com www.bitcoinc.us 34 MARCH 2019 WorldWide Drilling Resource ®