Underground Construction - July 2020 - 20

replacement project in Elsmere, Ky.,
just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The SD1 Elsmere corridor sewer project
called for replacing 5,900 feet of 12-inch
and 10-inch sewer lines that have been
in the ground since 1973, with a 24-inch
line with 36-inch steel casings. While the
majority of the work was open-cut, auger
boring was employed to cross under two
busy roadways, a railroad track and near
a creek. The project's general contractor,
Welsh Excavation, handled the open-cut
work, and called upon Rockville, Minn.based, large underground utility sewer
specialists, S.J. Louis to manage the four
difficult auger bores.
According to S.J. Louis Senior Project
Manager/General Manager Bob Schueller,
the company has specialized in performing
large-sized utility work since 1983. "Our
primary focus is open-cut installation
work, but we also perform a lot of tunneling, guided auger boring and microtunneling work," he explained.
"We've performed tunneling work up
to 132 inches in diameter and completed
auger bores in varying ground conditions
across the nation. Our skilled tunneling
and auger boring team compliments our
open-cut organization, in addition to our
sister company, which performs large-diameter horizontal directional drilling work,
Atlas Trenchless. We have always believed
in developing and investing in highly
skilled personnel helping us become more
efficient, so we can stay competitive in our
bids nationwide."

Project planning

Eliminating the Need
for Pulling Augers
S.J. Louis Companies recently deployed an
auger-boring steerable rock system to complete an on-grade sewer install in record time.
"One of the most time-consuming tasks
while auger boring is pulling augers to check
line and grade, and adjust steering, constantly," said 25-year, auger-boring veteran
and team leader/superintendent with S.J.
Louis Companies, Walter Keyes. "Typically,
on large-diameter sewer jobs, crews will pull
augers every 20 feet, which can take the
better part of the day when bore distances
reach several hundred feet.
20

JULY 2020 | UConOnline.com

"The process isn't quick, and honestly,
the work can get a little tedious. In fact,
on many jobs, a crew can spend around
the same amount of time pulling augers as
actually executing the bore."
Performing large-diameter bores
on-target and on-grade is challenging in
normal soil conditions, but concerns about
bore path deviation increase substantially
in rocky soils, where the material density
isn't consistent. Those conditions are
precisely what the S.J. Louis auger bore
and tunneling team faced on a recent sewer

Geotechnical reports for the soil
conditions around the Elsmere corridor
included a mix of shale and limestone
up to 8,000 psi in density. Without the
right equipment, keeping the bore
on-line and -grade in the consolidated
formations would be challenging and time
consuming, given the designed lengths.
S.J. Louis' Equipment Manager
Karl Holthaus, Tunneling General
Superintendent Wayne Brown and
Keyes got together to determine the
most efficient way to deal with the
varying rock formations.
"At first, we thought we would just use
an auger boring machine with a traditional
rock disc cutting head," said Holthaus.
"The particular head we had in mind was
something we've used before, and while we
knew it would be able to cut through the

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Underground Construction - July 2020

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