The scope of the Hudson Yards project, in short, was a tunneling project running under the Hudson River from the Hudson Rail yards to New Jersey. GeoRocFor was contacted to develop a casing advancement drilling system to drill the required micropiles in the very harsh ground conditions on the New York City side within the Hudson Yards.
The first challenge was to develop and manufacture a 14.0” casing advancement drilling system that would be able to drill through the toughest ground conditions such as overburden filled with boulders, loose sands, Glacial till, quartzite, clay, wood, and other debris from years of backfill.
One of the major challenges presented to GeoRocFor, was that the ground and surrounding structures were all subject to an elevated level of ground disturbance issues. Therefore, to develop a drilling system capable of drilling through these tough overburden conditions, seat the casing into bedrock and drill a rock socket beyond the tip of the casing, GeoRocFor chose to manufacture a customized drilling system stemming from their XS-GTE (3) Drill Through Air Master system. In addition, GeoRocFor added modifications to the crown and driver bit to contend with the very harsh ground conditions that were to be encountered.
GeoRocFor’s XS-GTE (3) Air Master system is designed to reduce the risk of air escaping into the surrounding ground formation while drilling and advancing the casing. At the same time, in using the GeoRocFor XS-GTE (3) Drill Through system, this allowed the drilling of each and every hole to be drilled in one single pass. Which means that the driver bit can unlock from its fixed position inside the crown once bedrock is reached and continue drilling the 6’ to 8’ rock socket beyond the tip of the casing in one operation. Thus, achieving shorter drill times in the tough ground conditions, resulting in considerable savings in both time and money.
The 14” micropile phase of the project was completed using GeoRocFor’s XS-GTE (3) Drill Through Air Master system with faster production rates and a safer installation.
Number of piles estimated: 5
Casing: 14.0’’ x 0.500’’ wall
Rock socket depth: 8’
DTH hammer: 10’’
