Planetary Utilities Inc

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For utility contractor Planetary Subsurface Utility of Dallas, taking care of Garland Power and Light's high-voltage electrical distribution system is their bread and butter. Then there are the jobs that allow the contractor to sink their teeth into something a bit tougher. "Garland Power and Light is one of the best customers I've ever worked for," says Brian Sauer CEO of Planetary. "You couldn't fi nd a better client. We're happy to stay home and work here," says Sauer, "but some of the projects are so interesting and challenging, it is hard to turn them down." Last year, Planetary traveled to Austin for three challenging directional drilling installations as part of the Shoal Creek Wastewater Improvements. The city's $200-million Austin Clean Water Program (ACWP) includes removing wastewater collection lines from several creeks and relieving other lines by constructing parallel lines outside creek boundaries. Planetary was subcontracted by W.L. Hailey of Nashville, Tenn., to install three 24-inch casings for new laterals to a 100-inch tunnel buried between 60 and 70 feet deep from 29th to 34th Street. The laterals serving the large tunnel required installation at severe grades: - - - According to Sauer, the city planners, engineers and the general contractor were familiar with the benefi ts of horizontal directional drilling (HDD), but not for use in the way it could be employed on the Shoal Creek project. "The big tunnel had been installed by micro tunneling, so micro tun- neling was considered the preferred method for installing the laterals," Sauer explained. "But micro tunneling equipment would experience severe diffi culty with the harsh inclines, and there would be safety hazards associated with spoil removal." Micro tunneling would require starting the laterals 60 to 70 feet below ground within the tunnel and working upward. The grade of the laterals was critical, with permitted deviations of less than 1 percent. Inquiries were made with several contractors about using directional drilling, but all felt that it would be impossible to make such an installation. A W.L. Hailey representative discussed the issue with one of Planetary's project managers, Russell Prater, who urged Sauer to consider the project. "With our extensive experience drilling on grade by HDD, we were able to design a profi le to go from a surface entry and exit in the tunnel wall," says Sauer. All three installations were made with a compact Ditch Witch JT2720 All Terrain directional drilling unit. The Ditch Witch JT2720 All Terrain model generates 27,000 pounds of pullback, has a maximum spindle torque of 3,200 foot-pounds, and utilizes a dual-pipe drilling drive: an inner rod to drive a rock bit and an outer pipe for steering the downhole tool during drilling. The outer pipe also provides rotary torque for the hole opener during back-reaming. The system operates on low volumes of drilling fl uid, can drill through a variety of soils, and can drill through many types of rock without the need to use a mud motor. The pilot holes were drilled with a 53/4-inch rock bit through a Del Rio formation, a blue-gray rock that drilled like blue shale.

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