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Interesting Project Portfolio
Atlantic Station Burns!  Atlantic Station, a huge mixed use (business and residential) community in mid-town Atlanta, on the site of the former Atlantic Steel property, was set ablaze by arsonists. The valiant efforts of Atlanta fire fighters to save the complex resulted in tons of ash and debris being washed into the intricate, underground labyrinth of drain pipes of all sizes. The expense of digging up these pipes to clear the blockages was totally impractical. Another much less expensive and disruptive solution had to be found. The answer was the high-tech video and jet-vac equipment and expertise of the professionals at Scientific Detection Services (SDS), a division of Keever, Dalton, Johnson Inc. Two weeks after starting this complex and difficult job, SDS declared the drain lines free of debris. Cold Storage Warehouse Ground Heating System Fails!
 The electrical ground heating system of a major Atlanta area cold storage, food warehouse recently failed. This system is vital to keeping the ground from freezing underneath the concrete slap of the warehouse, which is kept at an inside temperature of 30 degrees below zero. If allowed to freeze, the ground would swell up causing the concrete slap to buckle and topple storage bins holding millions of dollars of frozen food awaiting shipment. The problem had to be fixed immediately. Turning off the refrigeration, shutting down the warehouse or ripping up the concrete slab to replace the ground heating system was not an option. A better, more immediate solution had to be found. The directional drilling experts at Keever’s Scientific Detection Services were called. Using their decades long experience in directional drilling and the latest in drilling technology, the SDS team was able drill and line with conduit more than a mile of six-inch in diameter parallel tunnels underneath the building slap in less than a week. The heating and cooling contractor was then able to replace the faulty electrical heating cables and ground temperature stability was quickly re-established before severe problems occurred. Water Line to Major Industrial Complex fails!
Complex Three Dimensional Directional Drill Required.
 The two-inch copper water line serving a large Atlanta area commercial building failed. From the water meter at the street to the building, the line ran under an embankment at a dept of nine (9) feet adjacent to expensive signage and underneath the building’s busy asphalt parking and drive pad. A traditional plumbing solution would have been to trench the embankment and asphalt pad. However, a trench nine feet deep would require expensive OSHA mandated cave in protection; would destroy the established landscape and hazard the signage. Cutting the asphalt and trenching the parking pad would also severely disrupt auto/truck traffic and the center’s usual business activities. There had to be a better solution. There was and although high-tech and complicated, it was a far less expensive and destructive option than the traditional plumbing method. Starting at street level, the solution required the SDS team to directional drill for 188 feet in a complex, three dimensional pattern to hit a small access hole exposing the original water line in the parking pad near the building. The drill pattern first took the high tensile steel drill string through a 13 degree down-slope to a dept of nine feet followed by a flex stressing 21 degree up-slope with a left turn and back to straight to emerge in the access hole at a depth of three feet. After this difficult feat was accomplished on the first attempt, a two-inch replacement water line was attached to the drill head and pulled back down the bore to the meter. Tie-in was made at the meter and access point and water was restored. Time required…one day. |
