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New ABI HVR-100: The Right Machine for the Job |
When Bowen Engineering Corp. began working on the
North Indianapolis Flood Prevention project,
designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it
was clear that using a crane for their piling operation was out
of the question. "It was a tight work area. We were on top of
a narrow levee with the White River on one side and a road on
the other," said Dave Collier, a general superintendent with
the Fishers, Indiana-based company.
An excavator-mounted driver seemed to be the solution,
but the first rental unit Bowen used only drove about 75 wall
feet a day of SZ-22 sheeting, far short of the goal of 100 wall
feet a day. After about a week, the company decided to try a
new excavator-mounted driver/extractor and settled on an ABI
model HVR-100, which it rented from Hammer & Steel.
The new HVR-100 – the largest excavator-mounted
vibratory driver/extractor in the ABI product line – turned
out to be the right machine for the Indianapolis project. With
the ABI, Collier found that Bowen's crew more than doubled
production, installing 200 wall feet on most days, working in
compacted soils. On days when they were working in softer soil
conditions, the crew was able to drive up to 400 wall feet.
"We had the ABI mounted on the same Cat 330 excavator the other one
was mounted on, but the ABI is a bigger hammer with a lot more
power," Collier explained. "Bowen Engineering is very
impressed with the ABI HVR-100." In fact, the company was
so impressed with its rental experience, it decided to purchase
an HVR-100 and has already used it on some other projects.
Along with the tight work area, another challenge was a
lack of places to store the sheeting. "In the whole 7,000 feet
length of the project, there were just two spots we could use as
lay down areas," Collier noted, "so we had to be creative about
how to feed the sheeting to the driver. A loader turned out to
be the ticket." The crew used a loader to move the sheeting to
the levee where the hammer was stationed. "The loader
operator set the sheeting down and the hammer would pick it
up, set it and drive it," Collier explained.
The North Indianapolis Flood Prevention project was a
$3.9 million contract that involves building a 7,000-foot-long
floodwall along the White River in the Broad Ripple area of
north Indianapolis. In some places, the project involved
extending the height of an existing levee. Sixteen-foot long steel
sheet piling, supplied by Shoreline Steel, was driven in pairs to
a depth of 10 to 12 feet, leaving the rest exposed. A concrete
wall was then formed around the exposed sheet pile, extending
the height of the existing levee. The concrete was finished
with a faux stone surface. Bowen Engineering, which was the
general contractor as well as the piling contractor,
completed the project in November 2003.
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| Company Headquarters |
Branch Offices |
11916 Missouri Bottom Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63042
Ph: 800.325.PILE (7453)
Ph: 314.895.4600
Fx: 314.895.4070 |
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