First for trenchless techniques at APK Drilling
A challenging project in Diegem (Machelen) that provided an "electrifying" result by APK Drilling.
Project content - Trenchless techniques Diegem (Machelen)
The team of APK Drilling replaced 150,000V cables on behalf of Elia and as a subcontractor for APK Infra West. A first for APK Group, as this is the first time we have worked with cables of such high voltage.
About the project
It is a project where a total of 1345 metres had to be drilled. The longest directional drilling The shortest was 50 m. Apart from the two smaller models, the various boreholes were carried out using our drilling department's complete range of machines (D36, D60 and D100). The bundle that had to be pulled comprised three pipes of DN 200 and one pipe of DN 110. This required a DN 560 clearance.
A solution for every challenge
- Saturated soil: Brussels under the ground is at least as busy as above the ground. The ground is heavily saturated with existing infrastructure. Through a lot of study prior to drilling and several revisions, the ideal drilling trajectory could finally be found and applied.
- Sandstone benchesDuring the drilling, the team came across several sandstone banks that are difficult to drill through. Therefore APK Drilling to hire a special tooling to solve this problem. The so-called 'Mud Engine' was able to penetrate these sandstone banks.
- Traffic congestionThe project was located in an industrial zone with masses of through traffic throughout the day. In order to continue to apply our lesser disruption principle, it was APK Drilling forced to carry out the drilling mainly at night to minimise disruption to traffic.
Extra: Want to know more about the measurement systems used in drilling?
- Walk OverThis system works with a probe that is located in the drill head. The assistant drilling engineer, in turn, picks up the signal from the probe. In this way, the depth data can be transmitted in a relatively simple manner and recorded by the assistant drilling engineer.
- Optical gyroscopeThe optical gyroscope is a computer-controlled measuring technique. This technique makes it possible to drill to the nearest centimetre. The advantage of this measuring system is that it first and foremost works without interference. In addition, it follows the predetermined drilling line flawlessly, both horizontally and vertically.
