TBA Industries Planning and Design specialize in Directional Drilling in which our staff have decades of combined experience. Directional drilling is the process of drilling horizontal drill holes that create very minimal disruption. This exposes real and economic advantages which we can pass onto our clients.:-
There are many other advantages to directional drilling, to name a few.
Our company has successfully undertaken many drilling roles with the clients, projects and recommendations to attest to our excellent service.
The company owner, Tony Melvin, has been involved in directional drilling since 1999. He undertook a directional drilling scheme around the East and West of Germany. His largest success included a bespoke drilling project that consisted of operating 26 directional drilling rigs.
The contractor in place was located in Holland and had been struggling with the project. We where approached by VIATEL - the largest telecommunications company in the world, and there main contractor BECHTEL - The largest civil engineering company in the world (Both from U.S.A.).
Tony then mobilized with nine other sub-contract drilling companies and in twelve weeks had achieved 224 successful drilling shots in a figure eight network around Germany GND 1 & GND 2.
The drill shots consisted of shots under Auto Bahn's, Estuary's, Canals, Railways, and Rivers. This was the first major project Tony had been involved in and never failed on any single shot. Now thirteen years later, Tony has managed to set up his drilling company with the skills, expertise and knowledge gained from such a major project. He and his company have been accruing major clients along the way for the last thirteen years, all with repeat business and have never failed in any given project.
We're confident we can complete your drilling requirements at a competitive costing. Please free feel to contact us via our contact page above, or alternatively click here.
| Image | Description |
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26th November, 2012 - Hooton
Road
Hooton Road scheme was 900m of directional drilling. 1 Way 160mm drill pipe installed by way of directional drilling through the carriageway. We also hand dug in the carriageway for some 78m over a medium pressure gas main and a Government pipeline. We connected to the drill pipe either side of the hand digging. This project was an urgent overlay scheme as the existing cable was interred pre-war and was continiously faulting and was is need of replacement. Although a ten day program was given by ourselves we delivered in just nine days which included the live and intermediate jointing. |
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26th November, 2012 - Hooton
Road
Description as above. |
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26th November, 2012 - Hooton
Road
Description as above. |
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26th November, 2012 - Hooton
Road
Description as above. |
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26th November, 2012 - Hooton
Road
Description as above. |
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26th November, 2012 - Hooton
Road
Description as above. |
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25th November, 2012 -
Holywell, North Wales
This power connection was to power up a newly purpose built sub station in the grounds of the fire station at Holywell(North Wales), as the existing cables where layed pre-war and where in desperate need of replacement. Flintshire Highways where astounded at the speed of our installation. We successfully directionally drilled 875m of two way (125mm drill pipe along from Park Road). We undertook this work and gave our client a ten day schedule to deliver this scheme. Not only did we finish drilling we also cabled and re-instated all of the launch and receive pit locations. All works where carried out under Traffic Management and we delivered this project within the timescales given in the program. We actually achieved this scheme in 8.5 days. |
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25th November, 2012 -
Holywell, North Wales
Description as above. |
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25th November, 2012 -
Holywell, North Wales
Description as above. |
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25th November, 2012 -
Holywell, North Wales
Description as above. |
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25th November, 2012 -
Holywell, North Wales
Description as above. |
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Two of the latest vehicles prepared for the fleet. Uniformed to display corporate image. |
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Vermeer 36/50 being unloaded in the yard. |
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Front elevation view of new corporate vehicle. |
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Second Vermeer 36/50 being loaded onto vehicle. Preparing to mobilise to a directional drill shot in Cumbria. |
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Drilling in progress for UKPN - 2x 160MM power ducts at 100m length - Surrey, England |
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Rig preparing to pull in 100m of 500mm water main - Kent, England |
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Rig just pulled in 100m of 500mm gas main into shaft position inside shuttered access pit. - Leeds, West Yorkshire |
Horizontal Directional Drilling, also known by its acronym 'HDD'
is a common procedure for the installation of essential utilities
underground. For example, sewage, electricity, telecommunications
and gas - all essentials in our modern environment.
As discussed above the primary advantage of HDD is the ability to
cause absolute minimal interruption to the surface above which in
itself poses many advantages including social, environmental and
more importantly to our clients, cost.
HDD was initially used on large scale for the installation of
primary utilities to burrow under roads, rivers and canals.
However, the process was originally championed in the early years
of the 1930s. A fellow named H. John Eastman born in Long Beach,
California, United States of America and his partner George
Failing born in Enid, Oklahoma, United States of America famously
rescued an oil field located in Conroe, Texas. George had
established his company in 1931 and was granted a patent for a
'portable drilling truck'. It simply consisted of a truck formed
with a drilling mechnism attached, including a power take-off
assembly unit. His patented unit helped save the Conroe oil field
as it had the ability to drill multiple gas relief wells quickly
and remove the large amounts of pressured gas under the surface.
The drilling truck was absolutely critical in the handling and
control of the fire.
After the utility companies had started making use of HDD the
telecommunications companies quickly caught on and they began
deploying this method on many projects for laying down cables
underneath the surface. The telecommunication companies soon
realised the cost savings HDD offered, especially on long
distances. This usage quickly lead to a large increase in the use
of HDD and the industry began to expand vastly.
The basic internal workings of a HDD unit are fairly
straightforward to understand. The machine which is fitted with a
drill has the advantage of being able to pull, push and most
importantly rotate a drill rod. A drill rod is a straight piece of
steel that is threaded. These rods are designed to avoid bending
and to mitigate damage to themselves.
At the end of the drill rod a drill head is attached. Inside the
drill head is a transmitter that emits various signals to provide
the operator information regarding its pitch, depth and the
rotational position of the head.
A tapered cutting exists on the front of the drill head. This is
what provides the steering. The HDD operator simply positions the
taper in the required direction and engages the drill rod forward.
At the point of the drill rod reaching full-stroke the gearbox is
disconnected and another rod is positioned with the gearbox
reconnected and continued to the destination.
At the destination the drill head is completely removed and
attached is a reamer. This reamer creates a larger hole to allow
the required utility to be installed. The utility is attached to a
swivel at the rear of the reamer and its pulled into the ground.
The utility is now being pulled back to the HDD machine. This
process is continued using the rotational gearbox and drill rods
are removed until the utility being installed reaches the initial
starting point which is the location of the HDD machine.