In what is Rolkon’s biggest project done to date, the team faced some severe space constraints and a 17m grade drop over the length of this drill in an upmarket suburb in Morningside Durban.
Working for BLOC, who was contracted by the eThekwini Storm Water department, the horizontal directional drill for this project served to implement a stormwater network that links all the properties along the main stormwater bulk line in Innes Road.
The pilot drill was approximately 104m starting from the properties at the top of the hill and following the grade down a 17m fall over the length of the drill. With no line of sight, master driller Hendrik Nortje had to rely on the instrumentation and expertise of his locator as the team navigated under outbuildings, pool houses, tennis courts and foundations of retaining walls.
The reaming process was very slow as approximately 130 cubes of mud had to be removed from the base pit using a TLB, tipper and specialised fluid truck with a suction pump. Both the entry and exit points were carefully constructed by BLOC using a sheet file methodology to ensure maximum safety for the Rolkon team. RhoTech supplied 90m of pipe which they welded on-site using the butt-welding methodology. A 2-step reducer was specially made for this process to ensure the best quality welding for the job. In addition, a 315mm pipe puller, specially engineered by Nicky from New Vision Engineering, was purchased for this job.
The successful delivery of this multi-faceted project was made possible by the knowledge, experience and expertise shared by BLOC and our Rolkon team. See more images on our Key Projects page
