Grundopit under house drilling

The demonstration consisted of boring beneath terrace properties in the Pearse Park and German Road area of Waterford to replace the existing lead water services with a new 20mm PE water pipe.

The bores varied in length from between 15m and 20m.  Due to their being no side access to the rear of the properties, it was necessary to bore beneath the properties.

After discussions between Mr Michael McNamara of Shareridge Limited and TT Ireland's demonstration team, it was agreed that the Grundopit 40/60 mini-directional boring system would be ideally suited to this application due to its lightweight and compact design.

To reduce any additional concerns to the householders, the pilot boring operation was carried out remotely using a Radio Detection G2 locating system which gave the demonstration engineers on site constant feedback with regards to the depth and inclination of the borehead throughout the pilot boring operation.  The average depth which the borehead passed beneath the foundations of the properties was 1.2m, this was at the request of Waterford County Council Engineers and eliminated any risk of disturbance to the house foundations.

Once the pilot bores had been completed, the Sonde housing was removed and the new 20mm PE water service was connected directly to the drill stems via a swivel and then pulled into the bore hole as the drill stems were retrieved from the start pit.

The average time to carry out a complete bore, i.e. set up the equipment, carry out the pilot boring operation and then install the 20mm PE water service, was 1 hour and 30 minutes.

As can be seen on some of the photographs, the ground conditions were less than favourable and taking this into consideration both the Director and members of the Waterford County Council were more than satisfied with the outcome of the Pilot Project and commented that this cost effective Trenchless method of lead pipe water service replacement would definitely be used more in the future.

TT Ireland also offers the GRUNDOMAT pneumatic hammer range, for trenchless pipe installations and GRUNDORAM hammers for steel pipe installations to 4,000mm. Pipe renovation systems GRUNDOTUGGER, GRUNDOBURST and GRUNDOCRACK with 17-250 tons pulling force.  GRUNDODRILL directional drilling range.  GRUNDOWINCH Twin Capstan Pipe and Cable Pulling Winches 1-40 tonnes, the award winning Slip-Fast Pipe Pushing System and the TT-UK/RSP Suction Excavators.


Further information:
TT UK Ltd
Windsor Road
Bedford MK42 9SU
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1234 342566 
Fax: +44 (0)1234 352184 
Email: info@tt-uk.com
Internet: www.tt-uk.com