Tunnel and Dam Drilling

Stacpoole Enterprises loves dams and tunnels.  We have a large range of specialist small but powerful drilling rigs for drilling in tunnels and dam galleries, packers and pumps for pressure testing and high speed mixers and pumps for pressure and slush grouting.

Tunnel Drilling:

Adelaide Aqua Desalination Intake Tunnel

The desalination plant being built in Adelaide has two horizontal tunnels, one for incoming sea water and the second for outgoing brine.  Each tunnel was bored close to vertical risers that were drilled into the sea bed.  The space between the riser and the tunnel had dozens of holes drilled, to allow grout to be pressure injected into the space.  This was to prepare the ground for breaching the tunnel to hook up to the risers.  The test was for multiple check holes to produce less than 1 litre of water in a minute.

Dam Gallery Drilling:

Meander Dam Gallery

The Meander Dam job was the completion of drainage holes in an arc running parallel with the face of the dam to collect the small amount of water passing through the RCC.  Holes were drilled up to 35m in depth uphill, collected in PVC drains and run into the existing in floor drain.  This site is above the main water pipe feeding the power station, and involved the construction of scaffolding over the 60" pipe.  The rig was attached to the wall to avoid over loading the scaffolding.

Stacpoole Enterprises have also performed drainage upgrades in several dams for Hydro Tasmania at Trevallyn Dam, Cluny, Meadowbank and Repulse.