The Ashton Company – Repowering Tucson, AZ
Reported From: APE Western (CA)
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!”
