APE News |

Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

The Ashton Company of Tucson Arizona knows where to turn when it comes to getting their caissons in the ground! They turn to APE! Why? Because APE has the right equipment to get the job done!
Just ask Bill Vail;
“We had some really bad looking soil borings out here and I was skeptical that we would be able to get our power pole foundations in the ground to the desired depth that was required by TEP (Tucson Electric Power), so I called APE!
After consulting with Steve Cress I found a valuable source to help me understand what we needed to do. Steve thought that the highly compactable sandy soils, with blow counts in the 100’s, would be impossible to drive into with any vibro, even the King Kong (APE model 400 vibro). But after searching the options, Steve suggested that we come at it with the King Kong Vibro and pump water down the center of our casing as we vibrated it into the ground. This would help us to enhance the sands into a liquefaction state.
We approached TEP with the suggestion of a test program. Get everything out here and give it a try. If it works, we have a proven system, and with all the power poles that need to be replaced, it would be worth the time and effort.
Well, the time and effort was well worth it as the King Kong drove the power pole caisson into the ground to an acceptable tip elevation while pumping the water down the center of the casing! “Now we have a proven system and thanks to APE and Steve Cress we once again have success!”

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!”

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.

West Coast Contractors has chosen APE/J&M equipment to assist in their assault in driving 16 inch and 24 inch precast concrete pile. The task of driving concrete piles with a diesel hammer is enhanced, maximizing production by using hydraulic trips and variable hydraulic throttles. APE/J&M is the largest consumer of vegetable based hydraulic oil “Terresolve” in North America, and with available alternatives such as vegetable based fuels and lubes instead of fossil based consumables, the use of APE/J&M equipment can change any jobsite as green and environmentally friendly as possible. Contact your local APE/J&M office to find out how our team can enhance your profitability and lower your jobsite environmental footprint.

Michele Corda the Equipment Supervisor for Costa Fortuna and Jim Casavant of APE were on hand for the 1st Caisson driven with their new APE D50 outfitted with Costa Fortuna’s very well thought out Offshore Driving System. The System uses a Large drive plate with a Heavy Duty Pipe stub welded in the center, the Hammer in a Short Lead section is then lower onto the stub and Driving is complete.
The D50 will be used to drive the 2.5 mt. dia. x 58 mt. long Caisson’s for the new 3,000 meter Ponte Luis Inacio Lula da Silva Bridge. The Overall Shaft depth is 85 mt.

APE looks forward to many more projects with Costa Fortuna in the future.

When Waterfront Marine was awarded the contract to drive all of the piling for the new 4 story parking grage in downtown Norfolk, they knew they had their work cut out for them. They had to drive aprox. 580 12″x 12″ x 85′ piles with a very demanding schedule. Waterfront, being one of the leaders in piledriving in the Tidewater area, already owns many APE diesel hammers. They started out with 2 each APE D19-42 hammers and replaced one with a APE D30-42 as well as an APE Model 20 drill to pre-drill. Operations Manager Bill Hall said, “making that move doubled our production”. APE is the only way to go ! All is going full speed ahead. We wish them a safe and productive project. We also want to thank Mr. Scott Wall of Atlantic Coast Engineering of Va. Beach for doing all the PDA WEAP & WAVE information. He’s shown in one of the pictures with his mobile PDA. Call them for all your engineering needs.

If you’re not currently using APE equipment, you need to. APE is the largest piledriving & foundation equipment manufacturer in the world. Deal direct with the factory…………. GO APE !

MCM Construction of Northern California is one of the largest bridge builders in California. Traveling from north to south on the freeways & highways of California we can drive with confidence knowing that these bridges are built on solid foundations! Foundations driven with APE equipment! Here on the S.F. Bay Bridge MCM Construction drives 7’ diameter pipe pile 180’ long into bedrock formations using an APE D180-42 diesel hammer! When it comes to the BIG piles, APE has the right equipment to get them in the ground.

Jimmy Teoh, owner of FAE and Liew Tan hosted Dave Yingling recently in Singapore. FAE and APE/J&M share many business qualities essential for success in the Piledriving industry. A deep commitment to their customers and a never ending commitment to provide the best equipment and service available.

Dave was very impressed with the way in which Jimmy and his crew conduct business sharing the same values APE does in knowing that the prople working right next to you are like family. This brings out the best in a company and the customer will always benefit knowing we are by their side to help the customer better the bottom line.

INSTRUCTORS:

Steve Ried
Ray Heaton

The ongoing support for over a decade, of American Pile Driving Equipment LTD/J&M Foundation Equipment to the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Pile Driving and Bridgeworker program has always been reliable and provided quality leading edge presentations and training material. The presentations given by Dave Yingling and John White enable the apprentices to work with pile driving equipment from all manufacturers safely and efficiently.

British Columbia Institute of Technology is one of Canada leading polytechnic institutions. BCIT provides hands-on and pragmatic education that is employer-driven, based in technology, and that leads to high quality employment for graduates.

BCIT builds pathways for career success with full-time and part-time studies leading to certificates, diplomas and applied bachelor’s degrees.

The Bridgeworker/Pile Driver Trade is a government certified trade in British Columbia. The Level 3 Bridgeworker/Pile Driver course is only offered at BCIT and is the only government. The Pile Driver/Bridgeworker Trade Qualification Certificate is recognized across Canada. The training provided at British Columbia Institute of Technology covers all aspects of the of:

• pile driving & other deep foundation applications
drain wicks /soil consolidation /drilling
• bridge construction & maintenance
the BC Provincial Ministry of Highways & Transportation mandates that each maintenance district have a certified Pile Driver /Bridgeworkers on the Bridge Crew
• marine construction & maintenance
• formwork /concrete placing & finishing / steel erection / timber construction

British Columbia Institute of Technology training provides the contractors in the industry with a safe, well-trained tradesperson with a get the job done attitude. The contractor will get more bang for their buck from a certified Pile Driver /Bridgeworker.

Names of 1st intake apprentices

Carl Beam
Allan Burnell
Adam Matthison
Curtis Moffatt
Dave Wasstrom

John Dixon
Nikos Fakaro
Robert Kielman
Ron Lafontaine
Jamie Longmuir
Colin McDonald
Devin McKee
Daniel McMurray
Trevor Tuckwell
Brain Wiens
Jason Zoney

The International Foundation Congress and Equipment Expo 2009 will be held at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel and Spa in Orlando, Florida this year. Starting March 15th through March 19th in the outdoor exhibits you can find the APE crew at booths 1036, 1037, 1038, 1039 and 1040.

APE will be exhibiting a full range of deep foundation construction equipment from rigs to vibros.

We are looking forward to visiting with you and presenting to you why APE/J&M is the World’s Leading Foundation Equipment Manufacturer.

APE/J&M “We Build The World’s Foundations”.