Performance Assessment of On-Grade Horizontal Directional Drilling
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138, Issue 3
Abstract
Although horizontal directional drilling (HDD) has been widely accepted and used for installing gas lines, waterlines, and telecommunication cables, its applications to gravity-flow sewer lines have been limited. One primary reason is the difficulty with maintaining critical grades essential for gravity-flow sewer systems when using the conventional HDD tracking methods. Recently, advancements made in tracking systems, electronics, and operational techniques have made this HDD technology a technically feasible and an economically attractive method for installing on-grade underground pipes in many situations. This paper presents a newly developed HDD technology in terms of its technical capabilities and economic feasibilities compared with the traditional open-cut method on the basis of two real-scale case studies. Installation errors are quantitatively analyzed and discussed, and a general set of boundary site conditions for the application of this new technology is also discussed. The detailed analysis of the two case studies demonstrates that the on-grade HDD method could be a very attractive alternative construction method for gravity-flow sewer pipelines when some favorable site conditions are available.
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Acknowledgments
This study was sponsored by the Charles Machine Works, Inc. Their financial support is greatly appreciated.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138 • Issue 3 • March 2012
Pages: 458 - 468
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 13, 2010
Accepted: Jun 6, 2011
Published online: Jun 8, 2011
Published in print: Mar 1, 2012
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