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Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

US WICK DRAIN a Leland NC based company has just completed the largest marine barge installation wick drain project that has ever been done in the world. This project is part of the first phases of construction for a new port facility at “Craney Island” in Norfolk Virginia. US WICK DRAIN under direction of president Mark Palmatier installed 12,150,000 lf of wick drains in 6 months using the APE wick drain installation machines.

Now that’s 6 months with 2 rigs 24 hours a day 6 days a week! That’s a lot of wick drains. The longest wick drains were 150 ft. in length. Great Lakes dredging dumped a drainage layer of sand in the proposed wick drain area with hopper barges. The wicks will be placed and more sand dumped on top of them.

In order to place the wick drains in the correct locations on the water 2 barges had to be converted to have a grid all the way through the decks of the barges using steel pipe from the top deck all the way through the bottom. Each barge had a wick drain machine / rig on the deck. The barges would be surveyed into position and secured in position, and then each machine would go down the deck installing a wick drain in each provided hole.

Once these wick drains are installed and pre-loaded the engineers predict they will have about 21 feet of settlement. These wicked areas will support a series of dikes for the new Craney Island port. If wick drains were not used the dikes would constantly be settling and would have to be maintained at a large cost. This project gives US WICK DRAIN the most marine experience in the wick drain industry. APE looks forward to working with US WICK DRAIN on the next phases of the Craney island port. If you have a current or upcoming job contact your nearest APE branch to see just how much APE can offer to you. GO APE.

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!

Hurricane Irene came up the east coast and made a big mess at the shinning star of North Carolina……………The Outer Banks. This long strip of barrier islands is one of the biggest summer playgrounds on the east coast, but lately it’s also become a magnet for “Nor east storms” and hurricanes. One of the hardest hit areas is the region south of Oregon Inlet. It has become common for the water to rise up on highway 12 and wash large areas of it away.

Hurricane Irene was no different. Just about the time the winds & rain had left the area the residents & the NCDOT had seen the damage, a very large area of the only road in & out was gone and mother nature had blessed the Outer banks with a new inlet. “Carolina Bridge” from Orangeburg SC got the call to come and look and see what could be done ASAP to re-open this stretch of road. Richard Nickel, Operations Manager of Carolina Bridge met with the NCDOT and they decided to bridge the gap with a temporary bridge until a permanent fix could be designed and agreed upon.

The NCDOT contracted Carolina Bridge to install some large sheet pile containment cells at both ends of the bridge as well as aprox. 90 ea. 24” x 70’ steel pipe piles to support the temporary bridge. The crews will be working 24/7 2 shifts until the road re-opens Richard contacted Jimmy Deemer of APE Mid-Atlantic in Virginia Beach VA. And they determined an APE model 200 vibratory hammer and an APE D-30-42 diesel hammer would be a good choice to meet the criteria that was needed to support the new bridge.

Carolina Bridge is currently driving the piles to with in 5’-10 feet of grade with the APE 200 vibro hammer, and finishing / proving them with the APE D-30-42 diesel hammer, all is going very smooth. APE wishes Carolina Bridge a safe and productive job, we know they have their work cut out for them! Contact your nearest APE branch for all of your piledriving & foundation equipment needs, APE is the largest manufacture & provider of equipment in the world! Visit us on the web……..www.apevibro.com and see just what APE can do for you & your current or upcoming job. GO APE !

Archer-Western was contracted to update the existing water / sewage treatment plant at the “Norfolk International Marine Terminal” they knew they would need some large vibratory hammers as well as some very specialized ones for this project due to the soil conditions and the vibration requirements for the sheet pile installation. APE Mid-Atlantic had the equipment and game plan to tackle this difficult task. Jimmy Deemer / APE branch Manager contacted the on site Project manager, Andy Curl and they decided to use the APE 200-6 Vibratory hammer for the outer wall of the large coffer cell, and an APE 250VM (Variable Moment) for the vibration sensitive area’s around existing structures. Both hammers performed flawlessly installing the 60′ – 80′ sheet pile. Even the seasoned pilebucks who had never been around a variable moment hammer couldn’t believe that such a big hammer could drive such a long sheet pile in tough soils with no noticeable vibration and structure damage ! Amazing ! If you have a tough upcoming job, or one that is in a vibration sensitive area call your local APE branch. APE has all of the one of a kind equipment that the competition doesn’t even know about. APE has all of the solutions for all of your work…………………………Go APE !

Have you ever had been faced with a vibratory hammer job where the vibration from the hammer does alot of damage to the surounding structures or soils? How about historical buildings or inside plants or mills or around housing areas that are considered extremly vibration sensitive areas? Well APE has the answer! APE’s complete line of Variable Moment vibratory hammers.

The APE branches around the world can help you size & choose the right variable moment vibratory hammer to fit your projects needs. From the smallest the APE 120VM to the largest APE 250VM we have you covered.

These hammers are known and recommended by agencies like The US Army Corps of Engineers, All of the D.O.T agencies across the USA as well as all branches of the milatery. Customers can’t belive what they can do with virtualy no surounding vibration! As these hammers become more known by the piledriving industry the demand is more and more.  Contact your local APE branch if you think you have a upcoming job that this will be the tool of choice. GO APE!

J.G. Leone & Sons from Atlanta GA. came up north to the “Patapsco Water Treatment” plant in Baltimore MD. to drive miles & miles of steel pipe piles, 45 miles to be exact! Joe Leone SR. knew he would have to drive these piles hard and fast each day to make his tight schedule. Joe called Jimmy Deemer of APE Mid-Atlantic in Virginia Beach VA. to see what they could come up with to achive this goal. APE reccomended their new line of pile rigs the APE Model 85 machine outfitted with a J&M Model 115 hydraulic impact hammer.  These pile rigs are “state of the art” with alot of features no other machines can offer. These piles range in sizes of 12″ dia 14″ dia as well as 24″ dia. All of them are either 50 foot or 55 foot sections and are spliced with a completed length of 100′ or 110′

Joe choose to drive the 1st section with the APE / Nissha rig and come behind it with a crawler crane outfitted with an APE D-50-42 diesel impact hammer and swinging leads to complete the second section. This is an ideal set up for doing what we need to do says Joe Leone SR. The APE D-50-42 diesel impace hammer is another diesel impact hammer only APE can offer to contractors, no other pile equipment supplier has them. Along with Joe Leone SR Joe Leone JR and son John Leone are here to help out with this task. They do anything from running either machine to what ever is needed to be done.  We wish them all the best with a safe & productive project.

Contact your local APE branch to see what they can do for you, on your current job or upcomming job. APE is the largest supplier of pile & foundation equipment in the World …….GO APE!

“Waterfront Marine” a Virginia based contractor has begun driving piles on one of the largest piledriving jobs the East Coast has ever seen. “AREVA” & “Northrop Gruman” have paired up to construct a 363.4 Million dollar state of the art facility to manufacture critical nuclear components for the ship building industry here in Newport News VA. This will consist of a 333,000 square foot building that will sit on aprox. 7,500 / each 14″ prestressed concrete piles. These piles will vary in length from 59′ to 100′ When it came time to size & choose piledriving equipment Waterfront made 1 phone call ……….. to APE Mid-Atlantic here in Virginia Beach VA. Waterfront Marine & the boys from APe put their heads togeather and decided the APE D-30-42 diesel impact hammer would be the tool of choice. We paired them with an APE Model 20 drill / auger for pre-drilling down through the trash on the top. APE’s entire staff from their engineering to their service staff are the best in the business said Bill Hall on site project manager. They are available 24 / 7 should a problem arise. Bill is directing the job from onsite cordnating equipment, pile delivery, and scheduling personel as well as saftey. Supporting the job from the office are Ken & Randy Sutton as well as Sammy Burnham filling in for Bill Hall and doing his job as well. Waterfront currently has 3 fixed leader rigs driving long days. They cut back from 4 rigs to 3 a while ago still getting good production. We wish Waterfront Marine a safe & productive job. Please call your nearest APE branch to see what we can do to help you on your current or next project. GO APE!

Misener Marine has landed a very nice marine project for a private owner here in Norfolk VA. Misener knew there were a lot of pile driving equipment suppliers in the “Tidewater” area, but they made just 1 phone call to APE Mid-Atlantic in Virginia Beach VA. This job consisted of driving a 300′ of “Combi-Wall” a combination of steel pipe piles & steel sheet piles and 30″ square concrete piles under all of the docks & piers as well as 24″ square concrete piles upland for the combi-wall tie back system. They used APE D62 diesel impact hammers D46 diesel impact hammers, J&M Model 220 hydraulic impact hammers and APE Model 300 vibratory hammers. All has gone very well so far. Overseeing the job is Larry Thornton Operations manager, Johnny Eskins Construction manager and Tim Linden Project manager. Misener Marine knows that all of the APE employees are true experts in the piledriving field, all of them have worked in this business all of their lives. Ask your current pile equipment supplier what they were doing a few years ago. If they were selling forklifts or building kitchen cabinets why are you dealing with them ? APE wishes Misener a safe & productive job. Call your nearest APE branch to see how much they can do for your job…………..GO APE!

Harkers Island North Carolina is attached to the main land by a small 1/2 mile long bridge. The only electric power that is brought to the island is by means of an older out dated power pole system 200 feet away from the bridge. The currrent poles are aprox. 30 feet long. Some time ago some of the main poles were damaged by a water spout. The power company knew it was time for a much needed update on this system. They decided to install 54″ dia. concrete cylinder piles 56 feet in length for the new poles foundations and use poles 85 feeet in length that are un-guyed. They called “Taylor Brothers Marine” of Beauford North Carolina. TBM knew this was not an off the shelf type job. TBM contacted APE Mid-Atlantic of Virginia Beach, Virginia. APE ‘s engineers reviewed the soils data & job specfications and put togeather an APE D62-42 diesel impact hammer with hydraulic trip / start in a special offshore leader just for driving 54″ cylinder piles. This could’nt have gone any smoother than it did, talk about the right tool for the right job said Julias Taylor & Julias Taylor the 3rd.Why would a contractor use anyone but APE! APE wishes TBM a safe & productive project. Do you have a difficult upcomming job? or any upcomming job, if so contact your nearest APE branch to see what they can do for you……………. GO APE!