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Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

Taylor Brothers Marine is running full steam ahead on the “Morris Island” light house restoration project. The project consists of the 1st 2 phases of the erosion control portion. Julius Taylor had on his thinking cap when he planned to use a jack-up barge for this portion, because even on the best days things can change real quick. The 1st part of this contract consisted of installing a sheetpile coffer cell. This was done with an APE 150-T vibratory hammer. The second portion is filling the cell with rip-rap stone to stop the light house from leaning any more. APE wishes Taylor Brothers a safe & productive job. Visit the website, www.savethelight.org for more information on this project.

MCM Construction of Northern California is one of the largest bridge building contractors on the West Coast. They just landed the S.F. Bay Bridge Touchdown project in Oakland, CA. Jim Carter, President of MCM Construction, chose a APE D180 diesel hammer to drive his 6’ diameter pipe pile for the foundation of this project. George Stevenson, MCM Lead Engineer, designed the Bottom Drive System to accommodate the tight clearances of the pile to trestle tolerances. The complete driving system with the APE 54” leads, the APE D180 and the MCM Bottom Drive all work together for a clean piledriving set up.
The APE D180 is set up with a hydraulic tripping system that pushes the trip from the bottom of the hammer. This unique design keeps the hammer shorter, enabling them to use a shorter section of leads. This is critical when you have 130,000lbs of piledriving equipment hanging from your hook.
In addition to the driving system it was decided to operate the APE D180 using Bio-Fuel and Bio-Oil making this hammer environmentally friendly. Randy Smith, MCM Superintendent, consulted with APE on the critical specifications to ensure maximum performance of the D180 using this bio-fuel.
Randy Notnegel, Piledriving Superintendent for MCM Construction, put the D180 into action using an APE 260 Power Unit to operate the tripping device. With this power unit it takes approximately 12 seconds to trip the hammer from start to finish and Randy knows his business as he set the first 6’ diameter pipe pile in the template and drove it home with the APE D180 Bio-Diesel Hammer. Absolutely Flawless!
Keep in touch for more to come!

Gemini Drilling of Kernersville North Carolina was awarded the contract to install all of the 8′-6″ dia drilled shafts for the new “Fantasy Harbor” bridge over the intercoastal waterway in Myrtle Beach SC. They knew the going was going to get tough…..so they did what all smart contractors do, Called APE! Project manager Mark Doskicil contacted APE Mid-Atlantic in Virginia Beach VA. and determined the APE Model 200 vibratory hammer package was the tool of choice ! Gemini took the hammer to a test shaft project in Valdosta GA to do some test shafts for the GA D.O.T. before moving to Myrtle Beach. Mark said “the APE hammer is the best we’ve ever used, hands down” APE wishes Gemini Drilling a safe & productive project.
Call your nearest APE branch for all your piledriving & foundation equipment needs !

Spearin Preston & Burrows needed to upgrade their aging fleet of pile driving equipment for work on the Hudson River. They purchased 2 APE D46 diesel hammers and an APE 200 Vibro for the work at Pier 62/63(Chelsea Piers) driving 24″ concrete piles and a pair of D30 diesels plus an APE 200 Vibro for Pier 86 (Intrepid Pier) driving 24″ pipe piles on the Hudson River. The pile schedule was agressive enough to need an additional 200 vibro rental for both jobs.

Special thanks to Andy Murad and everyone else at Spearin Preston & Burrows who viewed APE as the obvious choice for their very large pile driving equipment purchase.

While working in Charlotte, NC one of your 35- AT’s goes down. The good news: you are in the city where your 35-AT was manufactured. So, you make the call for the necessary parts. The bad news: your are told it will be FIVE weeks before you can get your parts. Then someone on your crew remembers that American Piledriving Equipment and J & M Foundation can supply you with parts for your “green” equipment.
Once again, A.P.E. worked together from across the country to get A.D.F. back to work. From FL, to NC, to Seattle, Wa. the A.P.E. team got the parts together on Friday Afternoon and had them on site the next morning. By Saturday Afternoon, A.D.F. was back at work…no FIVE week wait!
American Piledriving Equipment knows the value of teamwork! The “old-timers” at A.P.E. understand this concept and believe in it…anything less is just bad business!
Give us a call and let the A.P.E team work for you!

PCL is the bid winner for the Lake Underhill Bridge in Orlando Florida. This bridge will be built on 30-inch concrete piles many of which are over 200-feet long with some approaching 300-feet.

Due to the length of the piling, it will be necessary to splice. Some of the longer piles will have two splices in order to get the length. PCL is using the Sure-Lock mechanical splice system.

After weap analysis and a field test, PCL choose the Ape/J&M Model 220 hydraulic hammer to do the work. The 220H was chosen because it has a heavy ram (22,000 pounds) and a totally controllable stroke. For this project, the 22,000-pound ram will be operated at short strokes (up to two feet) in order to minimize the stress in the pile while driving.

It is interesting to note that in Florida, when a pile is spliced, the amount of stress permitted during driving is about one-half of the stress permitted in a non-spliced pile. Therefore, hammer selection becomes a little more difficult and we see increased use of hydraulic hammers because of the excellent stroke control and heavy rams.

The hammer in use at Lake Underhill has also been equipped with an e-Saximeter. This is a device, which electronically transmits data regarding the hammer’s energy output. This information is valuable to the engineers in monitoring pile stress levels and writing hammer operation criteria.

Although the project is just starting, to date, hammer operation has been flawless and the pile stress levels are acceptable.

Leware Construction is taking delivery of their new APE D36-42 this month, this is the 3rd APE Diesel Hammer purchased by Leware Construction in the last 3 years. Leware has also purchased a new APE Model 75 Top Drive Auger and APE 475 Power unit this year. We at APE Southeast are very proud to have repeat customers like Leware Construction and will do everything possible to make their jobs more profitable with fast service and top of the line APE / J&M products.

Bergerson Construction, from Astoria Oregon are driving 36″ open ended pipe pile in Port Angeles, Washington.

With this set up a contractor can use a section of standard lead with a pile helmet and reduce the overall leader weight by 30% for increased range.

The pin on bell is available for 32″ to 54″ lead. Contact your local APE regional office for more details.

When “Seaward Marine” of Norfolk VA. was awarded the emergency repair contract for the damaged Chickahominy Dam outside Williamsburg VA. They knew they were up against alot of Murphy’s law, you know anything that can go wrong will go wrong. They had to drive 70′-80′ long steel sheetpile along the whole face of the dam that was falling apart. Well they did what all smart contractors do, “When the going gets tough” they call APE! Mike Troutman, Operation’s manager for Seaward contacted APE Mid-Atlantic and determined that the APE VM-250 (variable moment vibro)would be the ticket for this extremly vibration sensative project. With the project well under way it’s been full steam ahead. We wish Seaward a safe & productive project. Contact your local APE branch for all your piledriving & foundation needs.

Morris Shea Bridge completed a New D19-42 Sale this month complete with 100 ft. of APE 21″ Heavy Duty Leads, this Hammer was part of the Orange City High School project in Central Florida. Morris Shea is a very high production Company and very demanding of the equipment. It makes me proud as an APE salesman that they converted the Rental into a Sale. Morris Shea also has a APE Model 200-6 Vibro working in Puerto Rico on a long term project and a APE Model 300 Vibro just starting on a project in South Florida.