Underground Construction - December 2018 - 38

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HInternational Connection

HORIZONTAL DIR ECT I ON AL DR I L L I N G
Jeﬀ Griﬃn | Senior Editor

Hard Rock Completes Steel Gas Pipe Crossing Under Rio Grande

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Every long horizontal directional
drilling (HDD) installation has
something that sets it apart from
other projects, but not many
involve crossing international
boundaries.
An example of one that did is
a recent river crossing completed by San Antonio contractor
Hard Rock Directional Drilling.
A 1,771-foot steel gas line was
installed under the Rio Grande
River as a section of a pipeline to
carry natural gas from Mexico to
a facility in the United States.
The pilot bore was launched on
the U.S. side of the border with
the exit point in Mexico.
Hard Rock contracted directly
with the project owner for the
HDD installation. Pipe handling,
welding of the pipe string and
support work was done by H&S
Constructors.
"The river was full of beautiful
water at this point, and we spent
a lot of time planning to be sure
there were no inadvertent fluid
returns," said Corey Baker, Hard
Rock general manager. "We monitored mud properties to ensure
we kept them at our pre-planned
mud plan. We spent a lot of time
before any crossing pre-planning all aspects of the crossing,
with mud being one of the most
important elements of any crossing."
An American Augers DD-440
with 440.000 pounds of thrust/
pullback was used for the project.
The drill was equipped with a
mud motor and 10.15-inch TCI
bit to drill the pilot hole. A Tensor tool was used for steering.
"We used a Hard Rock 14-inch
hole opener," Baker said. "We
build most of the tooling in our
fabrication ship."
The pilot bore was launched
from the U.S. side in Laredo,
Texas, and drilled 510 feet before

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crossing the international border.
"After crossing the border, we
drilled another 1,261 feet, punching out in Mexico. We then had a
crew go into Mexico, remove the
motor and high-grade stainless
Monel that houses the steering
tool to help prevent some of the
earth's magnetic interference,"
explained Baker.
Then the crew prepared for the
pullback to the American side.
Surface conditions in the set-up
area were shell and limestone.
Average depth of the bore under
the river was 65 feet. Baker said
the product to be installed was
laid out and welded on the Mexican side and placed on rollers.
The 14-inch cutter and swivel
were connected to the product
pipe string, and it was pulled back
through the pilot hole.
The pilot bore was completed
in five days.
"The actual pullback only took
a few hours," Baker said, "but
that was over two days due to
crews crossing and re-crossing
the border. During the project,

our personnel never spent the
night in Mexico, coming back to
Texas after each day's work was
finished."
Start to finish, this segment
of the project was completed in
12 days.
What set this project apart
from others, Baker said, obviously was crossing the boundary
between the two countries. "It
brought many challenges," he
continued.
Crossings for personnel were
made at the World Trade Bridge
a few miles from the bore's crossing point.
"There were different taxes in
each country, and ownership of
equipment had to be presented.
Every member of the crews who
crossed the border had to have
passports.
"Our biggest concern for this
project," Baker said, "was getting
equipment across and back to the
states. We did a lot of research
and planning to make this task
move as successfully as it did.
"We also were concerned with

inadvertent returns in the Rio
Grande due to the fact it was not
clear what Mexico's regulations
required. Therefore, we had to
really concentrate on testing
and keeping to our mud plan
prepared by third-party mud engineer Don White, of DCS Fluid
Solutions. With all the research
and consulting we did and the
execution of our drill plan by our
crew, this was a huge success.
"This project was completed
by our maxi rig division led by
Tom Forconi and our 440-rig
crew leader, Rafa Gamez, who as
always, did a flawless job."
Hard Rock Directional Drilling provides HDD planning,
engineering and construction
services.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Hard Rock, (210) 403-2086,
hardrockhdd.com
H&S Constructors, (361) 289-5272,
hsconstructors.com
American Augers, (800) 324-4930,
americanaugers.com
DCS Fluid Solutions, (940) 7688071, dcsmud.com

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http://www.hardrockhdd.com https://hsconstructors.com/ http://www.americanaugers.com http://www.dcsmud.com http://www.UConOnline.com
Underground Construction - December 2018

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