Carrying out an HDD drilling in the German Ruhr area is by no means an easy task. The presence of unexploded World War II ammunition underground always presents a high risk while conducting an HDD. Brownline has taken up the challenge and has now secured the drilling area for 25 drills of one of our customers between 2017 and 2020.
The objectives of these drillings varied from installing all kinds of cables and pipelines to the construction of sewers. The common denominator for all of the drills was that each drill site could contain left behind ammunition and/or unexploded explosives from World War II. This made it absolutely impossible to go into the ground blind. Normally, vertical test drilling would take place to secure the area before the drilling. However, this is a time-consuming process, which can cause considerable inconvenience to the environment. Securing the drilling area by means of an HDD drill has several advantages; not only does it cover a much larger area with a single drill, making the entire process more efficient, but the nuisance for the immediate vicinity is also drastically reduced.
Brownline has developed the UXOscope specifically for this purpose, an add-on which is combined with the Drillguide Gyro Steering Tool. During the drilling, our surveyor works together with a certified specialist from the company Van Den Herik. When the UXOscope detects an explosive, the specialist immediately evaluates the threat and advises on the continuation of the drilling.
With the Drillguide GST and UXOscope, Brownline has been able to make a valuable contribution to safe drilling in a high risk area!