Entec

Mississippi River Crossing – This project was located near St Louis Mo. and consisted of approximately 1200 m of NPS 12 inch pipe. The project involved the re-drill of a crossing that had been attempted a major HDD Contractor and subsequently failed during the pull back operation. The pipe had become stuck at the 400-meter point and the HDD was abandoned with the project being declared as unfeasible for the HDD process. The crossing was subsequently re-attempted by a different HDD Contractor and successfully completed. Moreover, an industry first was achieved and through the use of innovative techniques the old abandoned section of pipe was also removed form beneath the river afterwards.

Wapiti River Valley – Located south of Beaver Lodge in the Elmworth area near the Alberta – B.C. border, this project consisted of a 1450 m drill from the flood plain, across the Wapiti River and up to the top of the south bank (280 m elevation change) and a second 900 m drill from the flood plain to the top of the north bank (260 m elevation change). The Wapiti River borehole was reamed to 22” to accommodate 14” FBE coated steel pipe while the “Hill Drill” was reamed to 28” to accommodate 14” insulated and cement coated steel pipe (total outside diameter of 18.5”). Upon completion, both boreholes were cemented to prevent aquifer communication along the installed pipes. Owner: Burlington Resources/ConocoPhillips. Contact: Darrell Hubert (ConocoPhillips).

Mississippi River Crossing – This crossing was situated near Baton Rouge La. Being approximately 1150 m in length with a pipe size of NPS 30 inch. The subsurface materials were swelling blue clays and compact sands with intermittent layers or pockets of gravel. Two significant industry firsts were developed on this project. The first was the utilization of vacuum assisted lift techniques to enhance the removal of sand cuttings from the borehole. The second was the manufacture and installation of the “Pipe Thruster” which greatly reduces the pull forces during installation.

Fraser River Crossing – This crossing was located near the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver BC. The pipe size was NPS 36 inch placed in a 1000 m long 48-inch borehole. The subsurface materials were primarily dense sands with potential gravel pockets.

Peace River Crossing – Located in northern Alberta, this particular crossing became one of the longest crossings ever completed in Canada as well as worldwide. The total drilled length was 1724 meters through shale formations. The pipe size was NPS 10 with a borehole size of 18 inches.

Peace River Crossing – Also located in northern Alberta, this crossing was approximately 1350 m in length and resulted in 3 NPS 8 inch pipes being installed in one common 30-inch diameter borehole. In addition, because of a relatively deep buried gravel channel, it developed and employed one of the first applications of utilizing a long length of telescoped surface conduit The surface conduit was a combination of NPS 42 and NPS 36 and was required to extend approximately 100 meters in length to a depth below the gravel formation. Before HDD drilling operations could commence the surface conduit required reaming or cleaning. This was one of the first successful applications of large diameter surface conduits. The introduction and application of surface conduit techniques now enables many HDD crossings to be successfully completed through gravel and cobble formations that would have previously been deemed unsuitable for the HDD process.

Han River Crossing – Situated in the northeast sector of the city of Seoul, South Korea this HDD crossing consisted of approximately 1115 m of NPS 30 inch pipe through some of the hardest and most difficult rock formations in the world. The rock formation encountered was an extremely abrasive quartzite exhibiting compressive strengths in excess of 35,000 psi.

Murray River Crossing - This crossing located in northeast British Columbia was and still is a world record for the most vertical elevation differential drilled using the HDD process. The total elevation differential was 225 meters passing beneath a deeply incised river channel and making it the world’s deepest crossing undertaken at the time.

Missouri River Crossing – This crossing was approximately 1000 meters in length through fractured limestone formation. The pipe size was NPS 20 with a borehole size of 30 inches.

Nose Creek Crossing – This HDD crossing set a new world record for vertical differential. The total depth of the drill path was 285 meters across a deeply incised gorge. The pipe size was NPS 12 inch with a borehole size of 20 inches. This crossing was also the longest ever undertaken in Canada and one of the longer HDD crossings in the world having a total length of approximately 1800 meters.

Peace River Crossing – This HDD crossing was situated in northern Alberta and involved the placement of an NPS 16 inch pipe over 45 meters below the river bottom due to extreme scour events within the river channel. The total length was 1200 meters with a borehole size of 24 inch.