TCH DIRECTIONAL DRILLING INSTALL

Using an American Auger DD-440T directional drilling rig with a 10-inch tricone bit, a PowerFlow mud cleaning system and a Vector Magnetics ParaTrack steering tool for guidance, the team completed a 2,200-foot-long borehole about 40 feet below the surface and installed 30-inch DR 21 Fusible PVC pipe inside. In early February 2016, a crew of 12 from TCH Directional Drilling - two superintendents, four equipment operators and six helpers - started drilling at the Cypress, Texas, site. After a study delineated the extent of the wetland, the length of the crossing increased substantially and HDD was recommended as the best installation method. Initially, the plan to cross Cypress Creek called for conventional tunneling, which would have been inside a casing, explains Christine Kirby, P.E., standards engineer with Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, and part of the design team for the HDD Cypress Creek crossing. of Houston served as the engineer of record.

TCH DIRECTIONAL DRILLING INSTALL

TCH Directional Drilling, an HDD drilling company headquartered in Friendswood, Texas, was subcontracted by Meiners Construction to install approximately 2,200 linear feet of pipeline underneath Cypress Creek by way of HDD. The Woodlands, Texas-based Meiners Construction Inc., a heavy civil construction company, served as the general contractor for the project.

While the majority of Contract 34 was achieved through traditional trenching methods, crossing a portion of the Cypress Creek watershed, a protected wetland area in eastern Texas, recently called for horizontal directional drilling (HDD).

An important part of that construction initiative is Contract 34, which involves the installation of approximately 18,700 linear feet, around 3.5 miles, of 30/24-inch potable water lines from north of Cypress North Houston Road to Harris County MUD 371/374 Water plant. So far, more than 51 miles of new water transmission mains have been built in an effort to ensure that, no later than 2035, 80 percent of total water demand is provided by surface water.

Tch directional drilling