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Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

A few hours south of Shanghai a contractor needed to remove 25 inch diameter steel piles from underneath a bridge. Since hydraulic vibratory hammers are so new to China it is not well known that they can go underwater. China still predominately uses electric vibratory hammers which don’t work underwater. This contractor prior to knowing an APE hammer can go underwater had an underwater diving team cut piles at the bottom of the sea floor as an alternative to extracting the piles. When told that our hammer in fact can go underwater the contractor did not believe it, so one of our good customers gave him a model 200 hammer for free to try on 12 piles. The job was a total success and now discussion is underway for four other jobs to use the same method involving more than 250 piles. This was a great step for APE to show how much more effective a hydraulic hammer can be against so many that are not convinced. The APE hammer is designed to go underwater without any change and because of its design it is unaffected by the high pressure.

Just 4 days after manufacturing the first model 200 vibratory hammer in China it was sold to a private contractor in ShanDong. The hammer was recently shipped and used to drive 3 feet diameter batter piles 55 feet deep off the coast of TianJin for an oil platform. This was a huge step for APE China and we are all very happy that the hammer was used successfully. The success of this job has already been heard by many other people who are interested in APE products manufactured in China. This was a big team effort with much the help coming from Jerry Cors who had a crucial part in the assembly of the power unit and vibro, Steve Gough who sold the hammer, and Mr. Zhou who is our manufacturing partner in China. Our new employee Mr. Yang has also helped with many things from hands on wrench turning to translation of the manual.

Steve Gough, Managing Director for APE International Sales, helps introduce the “Fat Man 220” the largest diesel hammer in the world to a contractor’s party held in Shanghai, China. The D220 (Fat Man) operated flawlessly while all the major Chinese pile contractors cheered. This was a historical moment for Steve Gough and for APE and SEMW. The D220 was sold to China Oil. Steve kissed the Fat Man D220 to give it good luck on its first job. The D220 has a twenty-two metric ton ram and is designed to replace large troublesome hydraulic hammers. The D220’s smaller brother, the D180 is currently driving piles for the new San Francisco Bay Bridge and another D180 just finished the piles for the Pitt River Bridge in Vancouver BC- Two of the largest pile jobs in the world. Thanks to Mr. Wong and Mr. Gong for innovations that have changed the world of pile driving forever.

Project site: Fujian Province, China

Equipment: APE model 200 vibro

Applications: Underground Retaining Wall for high rise building construction

Technology: Xie’s Patented Barrel Pile Technology

Pile information:

• O.D. 1500 (59 inches)
• I.D. 1100 (43 inches)
• Wall thickness: 200 mm (8 inches)

Length: 16 meter – 17 meter (56 feet)

Number of Piles: 200

Comment: Revolutionary Pile driving technology for soft soil foundations. The pile quality is comparable to driven cylinder piles.

MBEC (CHINA ZHONG-TIE MAJOR BRIDGE ENGINEERING GROUP) has just started another mega job on the Yangtze River. This is the largest cable stayed bridge for high speed train in the world.

Project Name: 6-mile Long Nanjing Da-Shen-Guan High-Speed Railway Bridge Project, part of the 900-mile Shanghai-Beijing High-Speed Bullet Train Mega-Project

Maximum Speed: 190 miles/hours

No. 8 Main Support: 46 ea 9 feet diameter 1” thick casings, 210 feet long, 286,000 pounds;

No. 7 Main Support: 46 ea 9 feet diameter 1” thick casings, 180 feet long, 242,000 pounds;

No. 6 Main Support: 46 ea 9 feet diameter 1” thick casings, 150 feet long, 200,000 pounds;

Equipment employed: two sets of APE Tandem Model 400 King Kongs

Contractor: China Zhong-Tie Major Bridge and Engineering Corp (MBEC)

APE China Engineer/Technician Mr. Yang, Yun Fu is on site providing technical service.

“We are proud to own two sets of APE Tandem King Kong, and we are extremely pleased with the superb service delivered by the APE team”, said Mr. Chen Rong Jian, General Manager of MBEC Equipment Division.

Background: The city of Wenzhou is running out of land. The “Project Overview” picture shows the master plan to reclaim land for the city of Wenzhou, 500 miles by highway and one hour by air plane away from Shanghai. The “North and South Dykes” picture shows the two solid coast lines where Prof. Xie’s the patented Barrel Pile technology will be used. Currently, Prof. Xie is working on the North Dyke.

Project Name: China Wenzhou Land Reclamation
Project Value: 8 million US dollars

Project Nature: Testing project for Wenzhou Peninsula Project

Mandrel Specs:
1500 mm OD X 16 mm thickness; (59” OD x0.63” thickness)

1100 mm ID X 14 mm thickness; (43” OD x0.55” thickness)
27 meters in length; (89 feet)

Required depth: 24 meter into soil (79 feet)
Equipment used: self-walking type of pile driving rig equipped with drills and APE Model 200 vibratory hammers. The clamps are custom-designed.
Soil Condition: silty & sandy soil

Vibratory Choice: APE Model 200 with special clamp system designed by Dr. Shea and APE.

On August 9, 2004 , MBEC ( CHINA ZHONG-TIE MAJOR BRIDGE ENGINEERING GROUP CO.,LTD) drove down the first steel casing into the Yangtzu River with APE Tandem Model 400 Vibro . The steel casing is 2.8 meter in diameter, 20 mm in thickness and 42 meters in length. The first part of the casing is 27 meter long. After driving down the first part, they welded up the second part which is 15 meter. The casing was driven 35 meter into the soil. MBEC will drive 40 casings ea for two piers of Su-Tong Bridge.