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Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

Manson was faced with driving some 30″x 1″ wall pipe pile 20′ into the Pacific Northwest Glacial Till lens. The APE Model 600 Super Kong was the tool for the job. Manson geared up for the worst; bringing drilling equipment and impact equipment but neither was needed. The Super Kong was able to drive every pile to grade by simply lowering the vibration speed, this allowed the hammer to chew though the tough till lens in roughly 10 minutes.

Sparwick Contracting of Lafayette NJ needed to drive sheet piling for the I-80/I-287 Interchange in Parsippany, NJ. They knew it would be tough driving so they called APE Northeast. APE provided a model 200-6 vibro, packing 6600 in/lbs to drive the cold rolled sheets into the difficult soil conditions.

Sparwick Contracting owners, the Fagerstens (patriarch Rick, and sons Brian and Mark), along with LU 1456 dockbuilder forman Bob Glew, know who to call for the best in pile driving equipment. APE Northeast is proud to have them as a loyal customer.

Call Paul Kuzik 201-400-8356 for all your pile driving equipment needs.

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.

JAB Energy Solutions go with A.P.E. in the Gulf of Mexico
When the old way of doing things becomes too difficult and expensive Johnny and Brent Boudreaux of JAB Energy Solutions started to rethink the way knocked over wells are P & A’d (plugged and abandoned) in the Gulf Of Mexico. The current procedures call for massive amounts of excavation on the sea floor of the gulf. Typically, this is done by using large jets and divers to move the mud in order to make access to the knocked over well which is usually bent below the seafloor. The safety issues along with the time and expense of this part of the process is a huge variable when working in deep water and dealing with unknown soil types. To attack this problem JAB designed and fabricated a special reusable can that is 20 ft. in diameter and 40 ft long. This “can” can be driven and used as a coffer dam greatly reducing the area needing excavation allowing for safe access to the well. JAB also built an APE specially designed oversized quad beams 22 ft. in length that weighs over 40,000 lbs, the beams bolt to the bottom of an APE Model 600 vibro ( Super Kong).
The first job for this equipment was done during the week of July 4, 2009. The job took place in 200 ft of water and the soils consisted of stiff clay. The can was driven approx 20 ft into the sea floor and the drive time for this was approximately seven minutes.
Brent Boudreaux, Managing Partner of JAB, had this to say, “APE took on this challenging never done before task and worked with us to come up with a safe and reliable solution. The scope was accomplished without incident in a very tough environment. A task that in the past took two to four days was done in 7 minutes. Hats off to all involved.” Contact Joe Wright or Brad Sullivan at APE Texas with any questions.

When Chris Shannon with Linde-Griffith Construction of Newark, NJ needed to vibrate 30′ XZ85 sheets in tough cohesive clays, he put the call in to APE Northeast. The APE 200 Vibro at 4400 in/lbs was dispatched to the site to get the job done. Pictured is the APE 200 in action at the Echelon Mall in Voorhees, NJ. Linde-Griffith Construction, in business for over 100 years, was hired to drive sheet pile to hold back the existing parking lot for Macy’s department store. Eventually a combination of retail and residential space will be constructed.

The experienced staff at Linde-Griffith know who to call for the industry’s most technologically advanced, reliable pile driving equipment- they GO APE! We greatly appreciate their repeat business. Please call Paul Kuzik at 201-400-8356 for all of your deep foundation equipment needs.

What can be said of MCM Construction of Northern California? Where can we start when taking a look at one of California’s major bridge builders? Lets see…

1) MCM Construction has built some of the most amazing bridges in California from North to South from start to finish. Massive multi level interchanges that make one dizzy just to look at and beautiful scenic bridges that span 100 foot deep gorges that are wonderful to look at and admire.
2) MCM Construction has Randy Notnagel as Piledriving General Superintendant who just happens to be one of the industry’s leading men in piledriving and foundation work.
3) Jim Carter, owner of MCM Construction, isn’t afraid to tackle any project, even the S.F. BAY BRIDGE APPROACH, which just happens to have 8’ diameter pipe pile driven to depths of 160 feet!
4) MCM Construction of Northern California uses APE equipment to get their pile in the ground!

These are just a few things that make MCM Construction great! Not to mention that they drive GREAT BIG PILES! As seen here, MCM Construction uses the APE model D180-42 single acting diesel hammer with a ram weight of close to 40,000lbs and an energy rating over 450,000ftlbs to drive their MASSIVE eight foot diameter CISS pile. These monster piles are 160 feet long and are being driven into existing bed rock formations for the Oakland California Highway 880 project located in the heart of the city where there are tremendous amounts of traffic every day!
These piles are huge! When the APE D180-42 finished driving the 8 foot diameter pile, the 4 foot diameter reaction piles are driven with his baby brother the APE D100-42. “These piles get bigger and bigger, so the equipment gets bigger and bigger to get the piles driven!” says Randy Notnagel. “The D180 makes the D100 look like a tinker toy.”
We soon forget the days when a big hammer was a D62-22 driving 36” pipe pile. That was huge in the day, but what do you expect when you want to drive across some of the safest bridges in America? Tinker Toys? Those days are gone and that is why MCM Construction uses APE equipment to get their pile in the ground, because if you want to go deep, “Go APE”!

Lane Construction has been chosen as the design/build contractor for a new bridge over the Indian River in Titusville, Florida. The new bridge is named The Maxwell Brewer Bridge, construction began on June 1.
This 3100-ft long, 4-lane bridge will replace a 2-lane drawbridge which is over 50 years old. The new bridge will eliminate traffic congestion; while speeding hurricane evacuation of the nearby Kennedy Space Center and the surrounding areas including the nudist colony at nearby Canaveral Beach.
The foundations for the bridge and approaches include 64 – 36” square piles over 200 feet long each. There are also 84 – 30” square piles of the same length and 118 – 24” piles. The 36” and the 30” piles are all spliced piles. A spliced pile is usually more difficult to drive correctly because the permitted stress specifications are reduced by approximately 50%. To prevent overstressing the pile, the energy going into the pile from the hammer must be strictly controlled. Lane has chosen an APE D-125 diesel hammer for the 36” piles and an APE D-100 diesel hammer for the 30”. An APE D-62 will drive the 24” piles.
The diesel hammers feature the hydraulic start mechanism and the APE hydraulic fuel system. This system permits finite stroke height control which translates into excellent pile stress reduction.
In addition to the diesel hammers, the project will employ APE vibros for the sheet piling and pile template construction. An APE Model 75 hydraulic earth auger will be used to pre-drill for the 24” piles under the approach slabs.
Lane’s bridge superintendent, Paul Roux states: “ We look to APE to assist us with our pile driving. APE equipment arrives at the jobsite properly prepared, performs flawlessly and, if a problem comes up, APE service technicians always provide prompt and effective product support at the jobsite. Project downtime is minimized.”
Pile installation will continue for the balance of 2009 and should be completed by the end of the year. APE will be there to offer support if needed.

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!

When Jet Drive Contracting of Woodside NY needed to install a 90″ diameter 1/2″ wall 66′ long caisson through the roof of an existing building, APE/J&M Northeast got the call. APE provided a 200-6 vibro with a 700 Power Unit. The very powerful vibro, with 6600 inch pounds of eccentric moment, drove the pile home quickly and effectively.

Please call Paul Kuzik @ 201-400-8356 for all of your pile driving equipment needs. Go APE!

Malcolm Drilling goes APE when challenged with driving 10′ diameter caissons for the city of Seattle in a low headroom situation. There were a couple of piles on this project where power lines obstructed headroom. At a glance this looked to be a job for the APE “King Kong”, without any suppressor. Dave Yingling, took a second look at the soils and was successful in recommending the APE Model 200-6 with quad beam and low headroom suppressor. This not only made the load lighter, but Malcolm was able to manipulate the pile while in vibration.

Please contact APE @ 800-248-8498 for your special foundation equipment needs.