FCI Constructors Attack on the “Low – Low”
Reported From: APE Western (CA)
FCI Constructors of California is in the process of the seismic retrofit of NHD Bridge in Sandiego, CA. The project consists of widening existing pier footings and constructing pier infill walls. The footing widenings consist of installing a total of 180 CISS Concrete piles. Due to the low vertical clearance of 20 feet, pile installation required the use of hydraulic impact hammers of low operating lengths. This is why we chose APE! The APE models 7.5 & the APE model 9.5 hydraulic impact hammers with operating lengths of 7.5 ft and 9.5 ft are used to install piles with 9′ and 6′ sections, depending on which hammer was in use, and welded to total lengths varying from 56 ft to 70ft. After piles were installed, precast waste slabs were set in place on kip brackets welded to the pile casings, to support pier footing construction. “This project was all done off of flexi floats in the water and we had very little space to work with. Using the APE hammers, working off of excavators, we were able to accomplish the task and thanks to APE we are able to drive pile in the toughest situations!”
