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EP Jarrett Foundation Construction is all about quality. Every project that they tackle is a job worth seeing. They do their work with precision and they use APE as their foundation equipment supplier because APE delivers precision equipment.

Working on a Caltrans project on HWY 165 just North of Los Banos California Mike and Ed Cuneo tackle a job with some interesting parameters. Working off of a failed existing structure while using heavy equipment is enough to make anyone work softly, especially when working at the limit. The Cuneo boys from EP Jarrett are up for the challenge. Installing 36” diameter CISS pile 130’ deep, using an APE D100-42 diesel hammer while working off of a scoured bridge was a challenge that is never taken lightly, and EP Jarrett Foundation went at it with precision.

The piles got started with an APE 200 Vibratory Driver Extractor with caisson beam and clamps ensuring the exact location of the CISS pile. After the APE 200 Vibratory Driver Extractor finished its job the D100-42 single acting diesel hammer took over to finish the driving of the 130’ long 36” diameter pipe pile, then the pipe was drilled out 100’ deep and the rebar cage was dropped into position ready to be filled with concrete.

At the end of the day, when the sun goes down, The gang from EP Jarrett can go home with pride in a job well done!

When “American Infrastructure” was awarded the new highway 15 bridge in Chester Virginia the existing large overhead power lines looked awful low. They scratched their heads as they kept looking at the headroom situation and how they were going to get machinery under them to drive the piles… can’t do anything till the piles are driven… right?

The management staff knew if any company could help them with this situation it was APE / American Piledriving Equipment. They contacted Jimmy Deemer APE’s Mid-Atlantic manager to come to the jobsite and have a look at what the jobsite conditions were and what recommendations he could make. After looking things over with the onsite staff the only solution was using an excavator. Along with APE’s in house engineering staff & head engineer Joe K they came up with a very productive & slick system. They decided to use one of the APE low-head room hammers. They chose one of the 7.5 series hammers the 7.5C

APE designed a self-contained system with the APE 7.5C hammer, 30’ of APE 21” leads with a 2 line headblock and a hydraulic sled that mounts directly to the tip of a 345 CAT excavator. The hydraulic sled that mates up to the back of the leads has tilt cylinders built into it for the side to side batters they needed to drive. It also batters fore & aft. All functions are run off the excavators hydraulic system “plug & play” This system can do it all!

Part of the design incorporated a Gear master hydraulic winch on the back of the sled for hoisting the hammer & piles. This is run with a foot control form inside the cab of the excavator. The piles are a taper tube MONOTUBE style pile. They pre-drill the 1st 15’ and set & seat the pile 17 foot tater bottom. Then they weld the second section a 20’ mid and drive it and then splice & drive the 3rd and last another 20’ mid or top .

They will drill & set about 15 piles in one set-up. This system is extremely quick & productive and all aspects of safety are incorporated into it. The onsite supervision staff said “We had no idea this low head room nightmare could have worked out so well “That’s why APE has a registered trademark “when a piledriver talks we listen”. We wish American Infrastructure’s Highway 15 job a safe & productive project. Don’t wait till your piledriving job has you backed in to a corner, start off on the right foot… contact your nearest APE branch and see all we can offer to you ! GO APE!

When American Bridge was awarded the NOAA seawall project in beautiful downtown Norfolk Virginia it seemed like a cut & dry type job. Some pre demolition of the existing structure, install a new steel sheet pile wall and form & pour a cast in place concrete cap. There were some out of the ordinary composite “harbortech” Dolphin piles that had to be installed for the final phase of the marine construction.

Keith Hall, construction manager for American Bridge has driven thousands of piles of all types in his life time. These were somewhat different from what he’d dealt with in the. Keith contacted the Mid-Atlantic branch of APE to see what we could look at to install these piles.

APE has a line of “low-head room” impact hammers that were designed for very low head room applications. These are called the APE 7.5 series. The 7.5 stands for the height of the hammer 7-1/2 feet. Contractors have found out through the years these are the best tool for lowhead room applications, but also for standard jobs as well.

There are 3 versions of these and they are identified by a A, B, & C series. The 7.5A has the heavier ram, 12,000 lbs. of the 3 the 7.5C has the lightest ram 7.600 lbs. and it comes standard to fit in 21” leads. The “B” has a 10,200 lb. ram come standard to fit 26” leads.

Keith & Jimmy Deemer of APE Mid-Atlantic chose the smallest of the 3 for this application, the 7.5C Hydraulic Impact Hammer. We mated this with an APE small pipe pile insert and 60’ of 8” x 21” leads and this combination worked great! I don’t know how we would have done this without this APE hammer. These are not your ordinary dolphin piles said Keith Hall.

Contact your local APE branch for information on these 7.5 hammers, APE is the only ones in the piledriving industry that can offer these lowhead room hammers to you. They can be handled with an APE forklift sled or many other means of lift applications.

We wish Keith Hall & American Bridge a safe & productive project… GO APE!

A new APE 170VM has been spotted in Los Cabos, Mexico taking the sun and driving contention walls for a very exclusive new Marina called Cabo Rivera . GITSA purchased the latest Variable Moment Vibratory Hammer technology to drive 3800 concrete sheets of 12m length x 1m wide x 90 cm thickness to build the contention walls for the man-made-islands where the new Marina DreamHomes will be constructed. The APE 170VM with 2,250 in/lb of eccentric variable moment and our newly designed octakong inspired concrete sheet clamp takes concrete sheet driving to a new level. The newly designed APE concrete sheet clamp attachment covers more area, transmits more energy, and has better grip than the old 2 cylinder concrete sheet clamp. Not even one sheet broke or fractured! Very soft fine sands made the driving difficult, but nothing watter jetting and slow driving (1350 RPM) with high amplitude could not overcome. Gladly, the APE 170VM allowed us to control the speed and amplitude infinitely with the phase in/phase out feature, high/low turbo, and the governor features.

The additional training & support provided by our technician Daniel Parke helped increase the contrator’s and pilebuck’s confidence in the equipment and in 2 days they went from 3 sheets to 6-7 sheets per day. I am sure they will double their production ones they get more comfortable with the equipment. We look forward to working with GITSA in the near future.