The following quotes and magazine articles demonstrate Jackson Creek's expertise in directional drilling and soil remediation: From Underground Construction, March 2003 David Wampler, owner of
Jackson Creek Enterprises, Allerton, IA, has broad directional drilling
experience and serves a variety of markets. The company has been making on-grade
sewer installations for about two years. "Last summer," says Wampler,
"we completed directionally drilling 2,970 feet of 9-inch diameter on-grade
sewer main adjacent to a city street and then drilled laterals to grade to
connect individual houses. Then we went across the street and put in 3.000 feet
of 8-inch water main and installed new services-all by directional
drilling." Wampler says that operators
must thoroughly understand their equipment and its capabilities, and have
exceptional patience. "One of the keys is starting
out right," he says. "You have to start each bore at the correct depth and at
the right grade in order to hit the exit point. If you don't start right, you're
not going to hit the finish target." Starting right means
devoting meticulous attention to equipment set up. "Every sonde and transmitter
has a certain amount of runout-it's not uncommon to be 2 or 3 percent off,"
Wampler continues. "That doesn't matter for other types of work, but for
on-grade installation it is critical. You need to know what that error is before
drilling begins, and the only way to know for sure is to set the sonde on a
solid, level surface and check it at every clock face position." Drill heads need to be
checked, too, he advises. "They are mass produced and
can be off 1, 2, or three percent. You have to know what you've got. If your
sonde is off, and your head is off in the same direction, you're going to be off
1 or 2 percent or more all that time. One percent error puts the drill path off
a foot every 100 feet, and that isn't good enough for this work. Another tip for staying straight, says Wampler, is to shorten the bit's "duck bill." That reduces the tendency of the head to wander, helping to keep the pilot hole straighter. It also reduces steering capabilities and limits the ability to resteer if the bore gets off grade. From Underground Construction, September 2001 "In Iowa, [disposing of
directional drilling fluids] has not been an issue for us yet," says David
Wampler, owner of Jackson Creek Enterprises in Allerton, IA. "As long as you
explain that the fluid is basically composed of dirt and water, it hasn't been a
problem. In many of the areas where we work, the soil is so good we don't use
additives. But we know that circumstances could change. We were just told that
we would have to clean up fluids on a job that literally is in the middle of
nowhere." Understandably, fluid
disposal issues can be more difficult for contractors working away from
home. "Fluid disposal is becoming harder in some areas," continues Wampler. "We were on a job in Denver recently where we had to remove fluids, and the one-way drive time to the disposal site was an hour." From Construction Equipment Magazine, March 2001 "There is a lot of potential
for directional drilling in the environmental field," says David Wampler, owner
of Jackson Creek Enterprises in Allerton, Iowa. "We just finished a project at a
truck stop in Indiana. If vertical wells [the standard practice before HDD
equipment came along] had been used, they would have had to shut the business
down. There were hundreds of semi-trailer trucks coming in daily, and we put in
horizontal wells without interrupting business-they lost no revenue at all
during construction. Once environmental engineers become familiar with the
process, the advantages are obvious." read more about this
project: here |