Directional Drilling

Scope

Michels executed a design-build project for a 940m Horizontal Directional Drill (HDD) under the Victoria Harbour to install a 1-inch thick, 42-inch diameter steel pipe to transport sewage to a new processing plant. The HDD crossing went from the James Bay area to Esquimalt, where the new plant is located.

The project included not only the HDD portion but the pipe makeup and management of the 42-in. by 1-in. steel pipe single pull section. The final HDD alignment included surface casing on the Ogden Point (pipe side) with the 60-inch surface casing installed starting at 1.8 m below the existing grade and less than 1 m above sea level. This required the HDD rig to be dug into an engineered trench due to site limitations with the back of the HDD rig only meters from the primary cruise ship access for Victoria.

The final alignment was just under 80 m below sea level, including ±15 m of ocean, 15 m of sediment and 50 m of bedrock. The drilling was completed through hard rock formation, requiring mud motors and hard rock tooling and ended at elevation 4.7 m above sea level on McLoughlin Point.

See our award-winning tunneling work on this project.