In April & March 2020, Brownline USA took part in the salvage operations of the cargo ship MV Golden Ray which had run aground at St. Simons Sound in Georgia, USA.
The environmental impact that could be caused by this shipwreck had to be minimized as soon as possible. The first step of this project was for the US Coast Guard to make sure that the ship’s fuel and debris from the wreckage could not spill into the ocean. Once this step was completed, Brownline could enter the project, which involved the completion of four HDD Pilot Bores underneath the shipwreck for the installation of Cutting Chains. Later operations would use the chains to cut the ship into five sections which could then be removed and salvaged.
The four bores were designed with very tight radii and had to be held within a 0.3 meter (1-foot) window across entire bore path. This project required the drilling operations to be performed in very close proximity to the shipwreck and surrounded by numerous support vessels. All of these circumstances caused heavy magnetic interference which would not allow for the use of conventional magnetic steering systems. Also, constantly changing weather (often heavy winds & strong currents) created the need for ever-changing planning of the drilling platform and bore path entry and exit location on each of the drills.
Drillguide GST’s excellent level of accuracy and independency of magnet fields ticked all of the boxes for this complicated and challenging project!