PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
Delmarva Power
Transmission Line
Rebuilding a 13.2-mile 69kv transmission line in a remote
location with no road access
By Lisa Kopochinski
The challenges of building and maintaining the power
grid for the United States are immense. At a remote site
in Delaware, AUI Power – a full-service electrical utility
contractor in the Mid-Atlantic region, specializing in transmission,
distribution and substation construction and maintenance – used
pile driving hammers from International Construction Equipment,
Inc. (ICE®) and American Piledriving Equipment (APE) suspended
from a helicopter (known as an Erickson Air-Crane) for a construction
project.
Logistically, this project had numerous moving parts. Everything
had to be flown in as no roads led to the job site. The project was
conducted for Delmarva Power and consisted of rebuilding a 13.2-
mile 69kv transmission line in Kent County from Lynch to Massey,
Md. AUI Power replaced 213 existing wood poles with 152 galvanized
steel poles.
“To complete the installation of the new line required us to
install 15 concrete drilled piers an average of eight feet in diameter
and 25 feet deep and 137 vibratory caissons averaging around
30 inches in diameter and 25 feet deep,” said AUI Power project
manager, Mark Scholz.
The types of hammer used for the majority of the vibratory caissons
were the ICE® 28B and ICE® 44B. The ICE® 44B was used in locations
where there were excessive compact clay soils.
“On a small section of the project that was surrounded by wetlands,
we conducted heavy lift operations, utilizing the APE 150T
with a helicopter template/gantry with the APE 350 powerpack,
providing 350 horsepower and resulting in 120 tons of driving force
to get the caissons started,” said Scholz.
Due to the hard ground conditions, the team needed to get the
ICE® 44B with a 595hp powerpack, providing an estimated 207 tons
of force to finish driving all the caissons to depth.
“Due to the atypical use of the ICE® 44B with a helicopter, we
reached out to Michael Gregory, our representative at ICE® which
supplied the pile driving equipment, to authorize modifications
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