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Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

Project estimator Bruce Duhon supplied these pictures of the London Ave. Canal Floodwall Breach Repair at Robert E. Lee Avenue which consisted of driving 480 each of a HP14x73 with lengths up to 115′ and batters as severe as 2:1 with the popular Ape model 7.5 hydraulic impact hammer. Piledriving superintendent Johnny Terral says “of all the hammers that he has used in his career the Ape model 7.5 is the sweetest one that he has ever used”.

While driving 130-ft long 30″ diameter steel pipe piles on the West Bay Bridge project near Panama City, Fl., APAC Heavy Division was experiencing much downtime and unreliable performance with a direct drive diesel hammer supplied by one of APE’s competitors.

APAC Equipment Manager, Bradley Briscoe called APE Florida.

A flawlessly prepared APE D-62 diesel pile hammer with an offshore lead set-up was shipped to the jobsite in the Florida panhandle from the APE yard in
Winter Haven, Fl. The APE D-62 not only decreased the driving time per individual pile, but, after driving hundreds of piles, the hammer has had no downtime.
“It starts easily and drives all day” stated Briscoe. These sentiments are echoed by the pile crew which is very happy with the increased production that they are getting.

Once again, an APE diesel hammer proves to be the right tool for a large, high-production project.

The Russians once again go Variable Moment. After great success in their 1st delivery of APE’s high tech Model 170 VM a second was shipped to the frozen land of Russia. More order’s are in the works. The 170vm works very well driving through permafrost and still keeps start and stop vibrations to almost nothing.

When Nate Stone of M. Alfieri Co. Inc. was faced with driving 1,300 10×42 H-Piles for a parking garage, he called APE/J&M Northeast. A D19-42 diesel hammer with semi-fixed leads was recommended. The work was done in 3 phases. With the joint expertise of Local 1456 NY/NJ dockbuilders, Local 825 Operators, and APE the job was a huge success. We look forward to working with M. Alfieri when they drive the piles for the upcoming office tower.

Contact Paul Kuzik at 201-400-8356 for more information on this job. Count on APE/J&M for all your pile driving equipment needs.

When a competiors hammer receintly failed on the job, the contractor made the call to A.P.E. in order to solve his problem.
Another CSX railroad project is underway and Fenton Rigging is once again on the job for them. With the past success Fenton has with American Piledriving Equipment, it was a quick call once again to Wally Brumsey for the solution. In fact, Wally is no stranger to CSX either, having supplied Hammers direct to CSX when they have the manpower keep projects in house.
The A.P.E. D19-42 was made ready and sent on its way to drive the piles. “From now on, we will wait for the A.P.E. Hammer to drive our piles. It is a lot more cost effective to start the job a week or so later than to break down in the middle of driving piles and have to scramble to recover.”
A.P.E. is proud to be the Hammer of choice with Fenton Rigging as well as CSX, and wish to thank them and all of you that have made American Piledriving Equipment your first call in solving your piledriving needs.

Mr. Randy Culmer will take delivery of a new APE Model 20 Top Drive Auger with a New Tier III APE 260 Power Unit this month. He also purchased 64 ft. of new APE Heavy Duty 26″ Leads. Marathon Seawall is going into the Auger Cast in Place Pile Foundation work that is becoming more popular all over the Sate of Florida. The Florida Keys is a unique area with some very difficult drilling conditions, the APE Model 20 will be perfect for smaller diameter piles to a working depth of 40-50 ft.

Ray Heaton, the Senior Pile driving/Bridge worker Level 3 Instructor for the British Colombia Institute of Technology generously hosted Dave Yingling, one of the APE Piledriving School Instructors for a one day APE Pile Driving Course.

This course covered an in depth review on the history of vibratory driver/extractors. A driver/extractor hydraulics and mechanics review including maintenance and operations.

The one day course also included reviews of mega pile installation using driver/extractors, bore log evaluation, in depth drivability and driver/extractor troubleshooting including specific jobsite vibratory selecting also a brief view into the present and future trends in vibratory equipment within the industry. The history of diesel hammers. Maintenance and operation of impact atomization and atomized fuel injection single acting diesels were also discussed including the basics on the differences in hydraulic impact, air and diesel hammers.

These apprentices are a “One if a kind” bunch of people who really care about learning the tools of the trade to make their job safer and more efficient.

APE is honored to have these opportunities to aid in the sharing of knowledge. As it is not our first time presenting segments of our free pile driving class for our Canadian Partners at BCIT, every time we have the opportunity to contribute, we know this generation of pile bucks including the next generation will make everyone’s job in the pile driving world a much safer, more informed and efficient one!

I would like to Thank Ray Heaton and all of the apprentices in the class for the many insightful questions. This class was a real treat for me.

For more information on APE’s Pile driving School, log on to www.apevibro.com and select Pile Driving School.

Here at APE, it’s all about the sharing of knowledge which in turn makes all of our jobs safer and more efficient.

APE is proud to have the honor to help make this happen.