Photos courtesy of AUI Power
“The flown weight of the
vibratory hammer with beam
and caisson clamps was
approximately 16,875 lbs.”
– Mark Scholz, AUI Power
helicopter gantry with power unit and vibratory hammer flew to
the site, followed by flying in the caisson and other equipment.
“Once this was completed, the vibratory hammer and its
caisson clamping system was clamped onto the driving ears at
the top of the caisson and power was given to the hammer,” said
Scholz. “The Erickson Air-Crane provides assistance in leveling
up the caisson at the beginning of the driving and continues
to be used as a monitor for the hammer as it drives the caisson
to grade. Once the caisson is driven to depth, the Erickson Air-
Crane removes the hammer and returns with the steel pole.”
The team would start the caisson driving with an APE setup.
Once the APE 150 met too much resistance driving the caisson,
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
the team would remove the APE 150 hammer and place the ICE®
44B on the caisson to finish driving to grade.
“After the poles were installed on the caissons, we installed
pulling ropes and utilized a small helicopter similar to a Bell
MD-500 to fly out our lineman,” said Scholz. “The helicopter
would land the work crews onto the structure, where they would
clip in the transmission conductor – thereby completing the project.
Like any project the most difficult portion is communicating
a clear work plan and providing timely updates as events change.
Our crews, customers, Erickson Air-Crane, APE and ICE® did a fantastic
job of working together in a time-compressed environment
to complete the heavy lift operation.” t
www.piledrivers.org PILEDRIVER | 81
/www.piledrivers.org
/
