WorldWide Drilling Resource

65 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® DECEMBER 2020 World Record HDD Project Adapted from Information by Michels Corporation Wisconsin-based company Michels Corporation has been providing utility construction services since 1959. Recently, one of its projects completed a world record horizontal directional drilling (HDD) feat. The Bakken Missouri River Crossing Project connected an existing compressor station located in the Bakken shale oil fields of Williams County, North Dakota, to a natural gas gathering system located in McKenzie County, North Dakota. To minimize disturbances to the area, Michels determined it was possible to have part of the route cross underneath the Missouri River and the Lake Sakakawea Reservoir for approximately 2.5 miles using HDD techniques. The 13,247-foot drilling project was used to install a 20-inch pipe under the Missouri River. As one of the most trusted HDD contractors, the crew approached the 2.5-mile project by using the pilot hole intersection method. This method involves two rigs drilling at the same time, toward one another from both sides of the project, eventually meeting near the middle. Gyroscopic guidance tools were used to stay on the predetermined path. The bore path extended 268 feet below the bottom of the Lake Sakakawea Reservoir in the Missouri River. The crossing was conducted in late summer to avoid disruption of the Dakota butterfly flight season, putting the project up against a tight window for completion prior to the winter months, which could prove problematic for water-based drilling operations and pipeline testing procedures prior to pullback. Michels’ HDD contractors also assembled and handled the massive pipe string, which took 38 hours to pull into place in three sections. Over the past 60 years, the company has become an industry-leading utility contractor offering pipeline construction, HDD, transmission, substation and distribution construction, cured-in-place pipe, direct pipe, fiber-optic networks, heavy civil work, foundations, tunnelling, dewatering work, and more. DIR TheWWDRoffice will be closed December 24-25 and January 1, for the holiday season. Limited staff will be available December 28-31; e-mail will bemonitored. TheWWDR Team wishes you and your family a safe and blessed holiday season.

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