Gorinchem is a city located in the middle of The Netherlands, with an old city center with intact city wall and a number of surrounding new neighborhoods. The Steenenhoek Canal separates the old city center and the newer neighborhoods from each other. In June 2021, Brownline was commissioned by VLST to survey a Radar Intersect job of nearly 1500 meter, with a horizontal curve of 97°, running along and under the canal.
As is the situation in several areas of the Netherlands, there is an impending capacity shortage in the power supply and networks in Gorinchem. The city has grown enormously in recent years and there are various plans for windmills to generate green power. In order to anticipate the capacity problem, but in a way that causes as little nuisance to the environment and inhabitants as possible, it was decided to lay new cables as close as possible to the existing underground 50 kV cables. This increases the capacity and the existing 50 kV installations can then be phased out in the future. In the past, these old installations were placed along and under the previously mentioned Steenenhoek Canal.
This intersect drill job is challenging for several reasons. Work is being carried out in busy urban areas, which means that there already are many underground pipes and cables along the entire trajectory. In addition, the trajectory crosses a dike, the aforementioned canal, a bridge and the city’s central station with several train tracks. The first entry point is located behind the dike that has to be crossed in a parking lot and therefore in a relatively quiet area. However, the entry point on the other side is located in the middle of a residential area, in a park surrounded by old trees. Here, careful consideration had to be given to preventing nuisance for the residents and to protect the roots of these trees. As icing on the cake, a horizontal curve of 97° has also been included in the route. When you have to deal with one or two of these factors during a drill job, it can already be presented as a challenge, let alone when there is a wide variety of things to take into account as is the case here.
However, with the Drillguide Gyro Steering Tool, there is no influence of external interference and even a drill job like this performed successfully and with the utmost precision. The combination of the Drillguide GST with the Radar for intersects ensures a perfect meeting of both drill heads at the intersect point. As a result, any inconvenience to the environment, residents and road users has been kept to a minimum and the project can continue according to the planned schedule.