Industry News, trenchless people
Brad Moore is a Principal Engineer with extensive experience as a civil/water resources engineer with project management experience on numerous, multi-disciplined teams for municipal infrastructure projects including planning, design and construction of waterlines, storm and sanitary and CSO conveyance systems.
He has experience in managing multi-disciplined pipeline design teams including conventional open excavation and trenchless construction methods. Brad has 30+ years of experience with over 25 of those years working on numerous public infrastructure projects including over 15 major pipeline projects in Oregon and Washington. Brad is a trusted leader in trenchless technology design and is well-respected by Owners in the Pacific Northwest. His breadth of experience on pipeline projects with trenchless elements make him an asset to any pipeline design team.
Brad loves college hoops and you can always count on a lively conversation about the Sweet 16 with him. He enjoys attending live sporting and music events. Brad also loves spending time with his beautiful family, including two darling grand-sons who always make him smile.
Brad works out of both our Lynnwood, Washington and Portland, Oregon offices.
Staheli Trenchless Consultants (STC) is a specialty engineering firm that focuses on the reduction of trenchless risk through trenchless engineering services including feasibility studies, geotechnical investigations, design and bid services as well as construction management and inspection services. STC provides these services for projects which include microtunneling, horizontal directional drilling, guided boring, auger boring, pipe ramming, pipe bursting, EPB tunneling and in-place rehabilitation such as sliplining and CIPP. STC is a certified WBE in Washington and Oregon.
Industry News, trenchless people
GeoEngineers, Inc. is proud to announce that Principal Jonathan L. Robison, PE has been chosen by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to lead the Task Committee creating a Manual of Practice about the trenchless method Direct Pipe®. The committee will be comprised of engineers, contractors, and equipment manufacturers and suppliers from across North America and Europe.
A manual in this ASCE series contains information useful to the average engineer in his or her everyday work, in this case Direct Pipe. Robison has been providing geotechnical, trenchless, geohazard, construction and geophysical project management and engineering services since 1997, and he is a registered Professional Engineer in 15 states. He has led the development of GeoEngineers’ Direct Pipe design process since the technology emerged. GeoEngineers staff, led by Robison, has completed engineering and construction services on numerous successfully completed Direct Pipe projects in the United States and Mexico. He is a member of ASCE and has presented seven technical, peer-reviewed papers on Direct Pipe engineering topics at industry conferences.
Robison is also involved in the trenchless pipeline industry as a member of the North American Society for Trenchless Technology, in which he also serves on the annual No-Dig Conference Program Committee. In addition, he currently represents GeoEngineers on the Industrial Advisory Board for the Trenchless Technology Center at Louisiana Tech University. He works from GeoEngineers’ location in Springfield, Missouri, and he earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering at University of Missouri, Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science & Technology or Missouri S&T).
GeoEngineers, founded in 1980 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, is an integrated earth science and technology firm with 12 offices in Missouri, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, North Carolina and Louisiana. GeoEngineers specializes in crafting unique environmental, geotechnical, and ecological solutions for the energy, transportation, water and natural resource, federal, and development sectors, and it is currently ranked #223 in the 2017 Engineering News Record Top 500 National Design Firms survey and 23 of the 2017 Trenchless Technology Top 50 Engineering Firms.
GeoEngineers’ pipeline services include the entire life cycle of trenchless projects. This includes geohazards analysis and geological desktop studies; pipeline route selection assistance; feasibility analysis of trenchless methods, including geometry, workspace and constructability; and geotechnical investigations before engineering and construction begins. GeoEngineers also assists in pipeline projects with trenchless design engineering, bid specification preparation and pre-construction support, permitting, construction observation with detailed daily reporting, and post-construction documentation.
For more information, please visit www.geoengineers.com.
Industry News, trenchless people
April 12, 2018 – LAKE MILLS, Wisc. – HammerHead Trenchless of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, a Charles Machine Works company, has promoted three of its top personnel to newly created management positions. HammerHead President Kevin Smith said the new positions are part of an internal expansion initiative that strengthens the company’s existing focus on customers and users.
Smith said: “As we grow, we look to the leaders within our company to step up and help us continue the expansion of all our business areas. These new positions reflect the need to provide dedicated and specialized oversight to those areas of our business that most directly impact the growth and profitability of our customers. The people we’ve chosen have 54 years of industry experience between the three of them, and are known within the industry for their leadership. We look forward to even more success as they help us continue moving our company and industry forward.”
Ryan Boldan is now Director of Support Services. His responsibilities include Marketing & E-Commerce, Inside Sales, Customer Service, Service, and Training & Technical Services teams.
Brian Kenkel is now Director of Rehabilitation and Replacement. In this position Kenkel leads sales teams and provides product management for the HammerHead Trenchless Rehabilitation and Replacement division.
Jeff Urbanski is now Training & Technical Services Manager. In his new position Urbanski and a team of seven technicians are tasked with building HammerHead University – an education center dedicated to the trenchless industry. He will oversee the training facility and direct creation of all e-Learning and testing solutions.
All three promotions were effective immediately.
Photo 1: Ryan Boldan is now Director of Support Services at HammerHead Trenchless.
Photo 2: Brian Kenkel is now Director of Rehabilitation and Replacement at HammerHead Trenchless.
HammerHead® Trenchless, a Charles Machine Works Company, of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, USA manufactures and delivers a unique combination of rehabilitation, replacement and installation equipment and consumables for the underground construction market. Besides being a full solutions provider in rehabilitation and replacement, HammerHead also offers unmatched field support and project consultation to its customers worldwide. HammerHead products are proudly made in the U.S.A. and sold and serviced in more than 63 countries. For more information visit www.hammerheadtrenchless.com.
Industry News, trenchless people
GSSI, the world’s leading manufacturer of ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment, proudly announces a new territorial sales restructuring designed to better serve customers. GSSI has reorganized its sales department into four regional territories to support further growth in its concrete inspection, non-destructive testing, and utility locating markets. With the new structure, application specialists will be based in the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest, making sales staff closer in proximity to customers. Customers can continue to expect best-in-class products and service support during 2018. Look for increased support staff and enhanced training class offerings in the coming year.
In the Northeast territory, Peter Masters will serve as application specialist. Peter has worked in the concrete and utility markets since 2005 and has been instrumental to the success of the StructureScan and UtilityScan products. He is actively involved in key industry associations, including the ASNT, ACI, CGA and NULCA. Based in the Greater Boston Area, Peter will be responsible for sales in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, DC, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
The Southwest territory will be served by Michael Phillips, who recently joined GSSI as an application specialist. Mike brings nearly a decade of experience in concrete construction product sales. He will be based out of the Las Vegas area and will serve customers in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.
The Northwest territory will be served by Tom Timperman, who has been with GSSI for two years as the Search & Rescue Product Specialist. Tom brings 20+ years of senior level sales experience and is excited to expand his responsibilities into the concrete and utility markets. Tom is based in Spokane, Washington and will handle customers in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington.
Bruno Silla will serve the Southeast territory. Bruno has been a concrete application specialist with GSSI for four years. Based out of Fort Meyers, Florida, Bruno is actively involved in the Concrete Sawing and Drilling Association (CSDA), serving as the GPR Committee Vice Chair and Next-Gen Committee Vice Chair. His responsibility includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Caroline, Tennessee, and Texas.
About GSSI
Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. is the world leader in the development, manufacture, and sale of ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment, primarily for the concrete inspection, utility mapping and locating, road and bridge deck evaluation, geophysics, and archaeology markets. Our equipment is used all over the world to explore the subsurface of the earth and to inspect infrastructure systems non-destructively. GSSI created the first commercial GPR system over 45 years ago and continues to provide the widest range and highest quality GPR equipment available today.
trenchless projects
Workhorse Machine makes progress in Difficult Ground
A rebuilt Robbins 3.5 m (11.5 ft) diameter Main Beam TBM has yet another milestone to add to its storied career: an unexpected cavern, encountered and successfully passed through.
Contractor Eiffage Civil Engineering is operating the machine, which launched in 2017 for the Galerie des Janots project in La Ciotat, France. The cavern, studded with stalactites and stalagmites and measuring 8,000 cubic meters (283,000 cubic ft) in size, was grazed on the tunneling operation’s left side. The crew named the cavern “grotte Marie Lesimple” after their site geologist.
“We hit the corner of it. To cross it, we had to erect a 4 m (13 ft) high wall of concrete so the TBM would have something to grip against,” explained Marc Dhiersat, Project Director of Galerie des Janots for Eiffage. A small door allowed access inside the cavity, which formed naturally at a point 60 m (200 ft) below the surface. The TBM was started up and was able to successfully navigate out of the cavern in eight strokes without significant downtime to the operation.
“This is certainly unusual, to come across a cavern of this size and significance. It is somewhat related to the geology, with karstic and volcanic formations having the most potential for underground cavities,” said Detlef Jordan, Robbins Sales Manager Europe. Karst cavities were a known risk during the bore, but the cavern was not shown in vertical borehole reports conducted from the surface along the alignment.
A further 1.8 km (1.1 mi) will need to be tunneled before the 2.8 km (1.7 mi) tunnel is complete. “It is possible there could be more unknown caverns. We have a geotechnical BEAM system on the machine, and are conducting probe drilling, shotcreting, and maintenance in a separate shift,” said Dhiersat. The BEAM system, standing for Bore-tunneling Electrical Ahead Monitoring, is a ground prediction technique using focused electricity-induced polarization to detect anomalies ahead of the TBM.
The crew encountered difficult ground conditions early on in the bore, consisting of limestone with powdery clays. “When the machine is boring it does well. We have good production and it’s a good machine for hard rock. But sometimes it’s not hard rock that we encounter,” said Dhiersat. The weak rock and clay conditions necessitated ground support including resin-anchored bolts and rings in bad ground, topped with a 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) thick layer of shotcrete. Despite five months of poor ground conditions, Eiffage is optimistic that conditions will improve and the tunnel will be complete in the next four to five months.
Galerie des Janots is one of the fourteen operations designed to save water and protect resources, which are being carried out by the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis, the water agency Rhône Mediterranean Corsica, and the State Government. The future Janots gallery will replace existing pipelines currently located in a railway tunnel—these original pipes have significant deficiencies with estimated water losses of 500,000 cubic meters (132 million gallons) per year.
The completed tunnel will pass under Le Parc National des Calanques, with cover between 15 and 180 meters (50 to 600 ft), in order to replace the pipes that are currently being utilized for the water supply networks. “The current pipes have a capacity of transit limited to 330 liters (87 gallons) per second, which is largely insufficient in the summer period. The objective of the operation is to secure the lines and increase capacity to 440 liters (116 gallons) per second,” said Dhiersat.
Image 1: The Robbins TBM encountered an unexpected cavern measuring 8,000 cubic meters (283,000 cubic ft) in size.
Image 2: Despite continued difficult ground, contractor Eiffage is confident in the Robbins TBM performance and optimistic that the tunnel can be completed in four to five months.
Brad Moore is a Principal Engineer with extensive experience as a civil/water resources engineer with project management experience on numerous, multi-disciplined teams for municipal infrastructure projects including planning, design and construction of waterlines, storm and sanitary and CSO conveyance systems.
