We have done it again! This time in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada.

Sask Power reached out to us with a task to repair eleven powerline transmission towers that had started leaning. Some had even begun sinking, tightening the powerline cables and increase the risk of power loss! The shifting underground terrain over time had left their foundations unstable, and in need of a superior design, with greater longevity and resistance to subterranean changes over time.

APE’s excavator-mounted HD driver system and Pileworks modular tooling solutions allowed Ampjack, the Canadian construction crew, to drill into the Canadian Shield, the Earth’s oldest, hardest dense geology, and to install high-capacity grouted micropiles deep into the Precambrian-formed land to produce a foundation that would support the transmission line towers, indefinitely.

Ampjack was able to present Sask Power with a finished, superior foundation for each transmission tower – the results far beyond what they were expecting. Amazingly, during this whole procedure, they were able to drill, install grouted micropiles, and reconstruct the damaged tower bases without having to turn off the power grid, or lift power lines to access the tower sites! Meaning, they kept the lights on for Hydro companies and their customers the entire time during the repairs. Talk about a smooth operation!

The Process

In temperatures as low as -40°, Ampjack portaged the helical piles & heavy equipment over seventy kilometers of ice roads, crossing lakes as deep as sixty feet, and created access roads across land inlets to get to where the work needed to be done. The job started with Amjpack using Pileworks’ polar penetrator drill bit attached to APE’s HD70™ driver to give them an indication of what was under this frozen land. They discovered that beneath them were three feet of frozen muskeg and large boulders, then eleven feet of swampy organic material, and solid bedrock fourteen feet from the surface.

To create new holes for the grouted micropiles, they changed the HD70’s function from the Polar Penetrator bit to our down-the-hole hammer bit. Within 5 minutes they had a different tool on the top drive and hammered out a hole eleven feet into the bedrock (which offered an amazing foundation to anchor our micropiles).

The grouted piles were made from our threaded & coupled helical piles and installed using the HD70. Their skilled crew was complete a single micropile grout and installation, from pre-drill to grouted install, within 30-40 minutes. Our grouted micropiles gave Ampjack the foundation they needed to work on reconstructing and correcting the massive leans on each tower. The task was completed in record time.

Pileworks helical pile foundations, along with APE’s installation equipment and Ampjacks’ energized tower repair systems were efficient, non-disruptive to the environment, and restored the transmission line with towers that will be standing for centuries to come.

Thanks to article content contributions by Eric Legault, APE Canadian Regional Manager
Phone (587) 988-3856
Email Ericl@americanpiledriving.com