piles were made of two separate 50-inch sections bolted
together to make an eight-foot-long pile, and were also
custom made for this installation.
After completing one shore, Castle and his team forded
the river which was about 60 feet wide and roughly three
feet deep in the middle. They waded to the other bank while
the helicopter flew the miniature piling rig across. This was
partly done to save time. The client, Water Surveys Canada,
was highly cost conscious and the rate for the helicopter was
$2,000 per hour.
Careful planning and preparation for this remote installation
ensured it went off without a hitch. On the day of the
installation in June of 2019, “We were at the helipad in Fort
McMurray at 7:30 a.m. and we were on our way home by 3
p.m.,” said Castle.
Asked what additional preparation they did for this project,
Castle said, “Our testing involved playing with pitches
and helix diameters. We also tested for potentially rocky
conditions. We had an incomplete sense of the ground conditions
we would encounter. So we had to be prepared for roots
and rocks. So we did a few test piles right outside our local
welding shop.”
One of the challenges that emerged during the preliminary
testing was that the machine was “sensitive to pile lengths,”
said Castle. “Slopes added a further degree of difficulty.
“The machine itself is finicky because it’s small.” One
of Castle’s concerns was that the power in the drive head
would prove to be more than the tiny Ditch Witch unit
could cope with. Anticipating this possibility, Castle prepared
and rehearsed a solution whereby they would guywire
the unit down with a dedicated screw pile. Fortunately, the
installation went smoothly and no additional measures
were needed.
One of the beneficial outcomes for Castle is that he now
has this unique piece of piling equipment.
“We’ve already used Spud in other jobs,” said Castle.
They’ve used the mini-piling rig on a few underpinning jobs.
Whereas underpinning projects are conventionally done
from the outside, “Spud is compact enough that we were able
to perform underpinning from the inside of a building.”
Castle is also optimistic that he’ll work on similar future
projects with Water Surveys Canada, given their mandate of
monitoring Canada’s waterways, and perhaps use Spud on
those as well.
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Castle is also optimistic that he’ll work on similar
future projects with Water Surveys Canada, given
their mandate of monitoring Canada’s waterways,
and perhaps use Spud on those as well.
28 Q2 2020 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
