completed Modular Wharf Expansion – Phase 1. This phase
consisted of drilling steel piles, shoreline protection and the
construction of a 12.5-metre cast-in-place concrete deck. The
company was also involved with earlier phases of the harbour
upgrades, including the demolition of the old wharf and
earthwork upgrades to the site.
Founded in 2004 by life-long friends Brian Freethy and
Ashly Williams, Heavy Metal Marine is a diverse marine
construction contractor that is recognized up and down the
coast of British Columbia for completing projects that will
endure whatever the environment may throw against them.
The company offers a broad range of marine, land foundation
and bridge construction services including pile driving,
drilling, dredging, general marine towing and design-build
projects. The company has also built a name for itself for specializing
in medium and heavy fabrication for structures and
equipment used in the marine industry. In addition, Heavy
Metal Marine delivers a wide assortment of equipment and
services for rent, including barges, tug services, drill packages,
portable bridges and other heavy equipment. The company
also offers drilling services, from drill packages to compressor
rentals to qualified professionals from coast to coast to
assist with planning and execution on drilling projects.
With more than 15 years of piling experience to back
up its reputation, Heavy Metal Marine’s cranes and barges
allow for mobile marine pile driving services, as well as the
ability to work from either land or water. The company is
able to install steel pipe piles, timber foundation piles and
steel sheet piles, in addition to providing extensive pile
extraction and drilling.
“Over the last seven years we have been doing a lot of
down-hole drilling and caisson installation work, growing
that side of our business and developing the technologies
we’ve been using, while also doing some experimentation
with new products,” said Freethy, owner of Heavy Metal
Marine Ltd. “We beat out a local contractor up there by a very
minor margin based on our adaptability to complete the job
more efficiently and at a lower cost, instead of just sticking to
the old ways of doing things.”
For the project, Heavy Metal Marine made use of a Terex
110-ton crane, a drill package developed in-house, three 1,170
cubic-feet-per-minute compressors, a CAT excavator and an
ICE vibratory hammer, as well a number of other smaller
pieces of equipment. All of the top-drive, drilling procedures
– and much of the drill tooling – were internally developed
and built by the company. The use of an 18-inch down-hole
hammer and 24-inch ring bit (supplied by Mincon) allowed
Heavy Metal Marine to reduce the amount of air flow and significantly
sped up drill times.
“For the wharf project in Port Edward, we had to drill
through anywhere between 10 to 15 metres of shot rock,
overburden and into the rock underneath,” said Freethy. “The
Mincon ring bits and hammer provided better air flow control
and resulted in less sediment being pushed up from the hole.
This gave us much better drilling efficiency through the overburden
and into the rock, with no clogging whatsoever, and
gave us really good flow through the reverse circulation drill.”
The 42 24-inch steel piles were an average length of 65
feet with a 5/8-inch wall. Most of the piles were drilled in the
water and Heavy Metal Marine was able to install at a rate of
approximately one pile per hour on production.
Many of the challenges encountered during the project
were related to the working environment of the northern
Pacific coastline. With tides cycling up to 25 feet each day,
Heavy Metal Marine had to contend with very strong currents
and, as a result, the company’s equipment would experience
some shifting. So, rather than working from a barge, as would
be normal for a project like this, Heavy Metal Marine chose
to work from shore, which provided a more controlled and
secure job site to work with, greatly improved production
and helped with the accuracy the pile installations.
“We had to contend with drilling a 24-inch diameter pile
through thick till overburden and into the rock underneath;
it’s all unknown, you obviously can’t see underground and
we were seating these piles two-and-a-half metres into solid
bedrock,” said Freethy. “The logistics dictated that working
from land instead of a barge would be more efficient for this
project. Working from land made us more productive during
the shifts and we were not as impacted by the ebb and flow of
the tides, which ultimately improved our costs and made us
more competitive.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
The piling project as seen from the new wharf
8 Q2 2020 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
