International Construction Magazine: New Direction for Chinese Construction
We recently received the 2012 January – February issue of International Construction Magazine, and we are more than pleased to see an article on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge project where the APE OctaKong was driving the largest diameter piles every driven in history. For those of you unfamiliar with the project, here is a rundown on the scope of the project courtesy of Wikipedia:
“The in-construction Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge is a series of bridges and tunnels that will connect Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai, three major cities situated on the Pearl River Delta in southern China. The proposed 50 km (31 mi) link is expected to cost US$10.7 billion.[citation needed] With its length, it would become one of the landmarks within the area. The longest bridge section will be 22.8 km (14.2 mi) long and include three cable-stayed spans between 280 m (920 ft) and 460 m (1,510 ft).[1][2] Construction formally began on 15 December 2009.[3] The bridge is due for completion in 2016.”
David White, Director of Operations of the APE China Office and Manufacturing facility wrote an article back in December detailing the role that APE and our team played in constructing the foundation for the reclaimed islands of the bridge, this was after the final pile had been driven. During the process we have written several more articles with details on the construction of the bridge and APE’s continued involvement. We look forward to helping the Chinese build quality foundations for any of their coming construction projects. Below are the links to all of the articles we have written over the past year on the OctaKong and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge:
- Final 72′ Pile Driven to Grade, OctaKong Project Finished
- APE Drives the World’s Largest Pile!
- APE China Successfully Drove the World’s Largest Sheet Pile
- Octakong and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge
- APE China Successfully Tests Tandem 200-6
- When the Competition Says “They Can Do It”… Talk to Someone Who Has “DONE IT” Call APE!
Final 72′ Pile Driven to Grade, OctaKong Project Finished
On December 8th 2011, the APE “OctaKong” hammer drove it’s final pile to grade in front of a crowd of 200 people on the South China Sea. Many Engineers, officials, contractors, and China T.V. Stations came to witness the final pile drive to grade. In total, 120 piles were used to create the east and west man-made islands for the HongKong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge project. The largest pile was 72 feet in diameter, 180 feet high, and 660 US tons. The entire project lasted just under 7 months, an incredibly fast time to make two full island foundations. ZPMC, the Shanghai based company who fabricated the piles, could hardly keep up pile production with the driving speed of the project. At the fastest point the OctaKong drove 6 piles in 3 days. One of the biggest challenges of the East island was learning how to drive 72 foot diameter piles in complex soil conditions. When driving large diameter piles the soil conditions on one side of the pile can be very different than on the other side of the pile. At some points the right side of the pile was facing N47+ soil while the left side only saw only N15. Soil layers are not flat, which is not usually not a problem when driving small diameter piles, but when faced with super large piles often times one full side of the pile will cut through a soil layer for 10 feet before the other side of the pile hits the same layer. This creates a big challenge when trying to get the pile to go into the soil perfectly straight. These new challenges forced us to learn a new pile driving method specific to large diameter piles. No doubt a huge step for the pile driving industry for the future of even larger bridges, land reclamation, and wind power.
It was a surreal feeling to watch the last pile go into the ground after nearly 2 years of research and planning. As the pile reached it’s final feet many surrounding boats launched fireworks and large cheering could be heard as soon as the machine was shut off. It’s not very common in Chinese culture to see grown business men and engineers hugging and shouting, but as the OctaKong drove it’s last few feet I think it sent overwhelming joy throughout everybody who’s worked on the project, including myself. The timeline for this project was so tight that tensions were high for the last 7 months. I think everybody knew that if the OctaKong hammer broke for whatever reason the entire project had no chance to finish on time, and with no backup hammer, APE China felt the heat to make sure the project kept going smoothly. I’m glad to report that the OctaKong hammer never had even one day of downtime, something our APE team should be very proud of. The APE 200-6 tandem special is driving the final 37 foot shell-pile-walls over the next week and that project should conclude soon as well. Thank you to everybody who worked so hard on this project!
We are working on a 30 minute documentary for this project with some pretty amazing video and pictures. Please stay tuned for that to be released soon!
Should you have any specific questions about this project, I invite you to e-mail me or call at anytime. Phone: 253-872-0141 E-mail: stevec@apevibro.com
