After completing horizontal directional drilling (HDD) crossings for the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP) Stage 5B Expansion project, and for the Western Australia Water Corporation in 2009, McConnell Dowell’s new American Augers DD-625 drill has been mobilised to Thailand.
McConnell Dowell has now commenced work on two projects located in the Southern Province of Rayong, approximately 200 km southeast of Bangkok.
The crew, lead by HDD Superintendent Shayne Hicks, has already completed an 835 m and a 1,160 m crossing for the 24 inch diameter IRPC Natural Gas Pipeline, owned by the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT). Work has now commenced on a 1,800 m crossing for this project, which includes the installation of a 24 inch diameter 3LPE coated gas pipeline and a 6 inch fibre optic cable duct.
The pipeline construction work for much of this project is situated within a narrow easement on the side of Highway 36, Rayong. This easement includes parallel overhead high-voltage power lines and a buried 1 m diameter water main, making parallel installation of the gas pipeline challenging.
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In addition, the DD-625 rig is being used for more challenging work on the nearby Fourth Transmission Pipeline Interconnector Project, also for PTT.
This project includes multiple large-bore pipelines within the same easement. McConnell Dowell will carry out numerous HDDs for this project, including parallel drills for 42 inch, 36 inch and 6 inch diameter pipes for distances of between 545 m and 1,280 m.
Day and night shift crews are being used for all HDD crossings, as a total of 12 drills and a combined length of almost 12 km of drilling is to be completed with the HDD rig this year.
More rigs, more projects
McConnell Dowell has also recently purchased a Vermeer D80 drilling rig (35 t capacity) to complement its extensive fleet of construction equipment, and provide flexibility of solutions for project teams and clients in the gas pipeline, water pipeline and telecommunications industries.
The company has completed trenchless crossings using directional drills and tunnel boring machines (TBMs) in Australia, South East Asia and Europe.
Some of these crossings were on the Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan Pipeline and Samsun – Ceyhan Pipeline projects in Azerbaijan, where the crews and equipment completed seven directional drills of between 500 m and 1,002 m for the 42 inch gas and oil pipelines.
As part of the Southern Regional Water Pipeline (SRWP) Alliance, McConnell Dowell staff completed ten separate crossings in Queensland using a Herrenknecht AVN1500TB TBM nicknamed ‘Wombat’ to install water pipelines of between 960 mm and 1,086 mm in diameter in 2007–2008.
Other newly purchased HDD equipment gives McConnell Dowell the flexibility to offer solutions for smaller bore steel or high density polyethylene pipelines for the gas and water industries, as well as trenchless solutions for broadband networks to be installed by the telecommunications industry.
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