Print PageWater Jet Contractor Helps Remove Temporary Pier Piles at Audubon Bridge Construction Site Following Record Floods
Photo Gallery
Click images to enlarge
Midwest Mobile Waterjet designed and built a waterjet cutting tool that was used to cut out piles from a temporary work pier at the John James Audubon Bridge construction site in Louisiana. The cutting tool was lowered down the inside of the piles and cut them at the required depth. Photo courtesy of Midwest Mobile Waterjet
After the cuts were complete, a crane lifted the upper portion of the piles and loaded them on a waiting flatbed truck. Photo courtesy of Midwest Mobile Waterjet
The John James Audubon Bridge is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere. Located in south-central Louisiana, the bridge crosses the Mississippi River between Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana parishes. Photo courtesy of Midwest Mobile Waterjet
When record spring floods made it impossible for the Audubon Bridge's contractors to remove their construction pier piles using conventional methods, they turned to Midwest Mobile Waterjet, a Minnesota-based waterjet contractor whose motto is "if it is possible, we can do it."
The bridge contractors had just finished constructing the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere, the John James Audubon Bridge, north of Baton Rouge, La., and they faced hefty penalties if they did not meet their deadline for removing the temporary piles from the Mississippi River. Normally most of the steel piles would have been on dry land and easily dug up, cut with a torch and removed with a crane, but the flood waters left them deep in the water, inaccessible with standard equipment.
The bridge contractors challenged Midwest Mobile Waterjet to rapidly develop a first-of-its-kind abrasive waterjet cutting system that could be dropped 20-40 feet inside of the piles and cut them off three feet below the riverbed. The tool needed to be light, compact and adjustable for different pipe diameters, 24" to 48", and it needed to maintain balance to keep the cut line at the same height all the way around. It also had to be operable in muddy water 25 feet below the waterline with little visibility.
"To my knowledge, this had never been done before," said Brian Gleeson, Midwest Mobile Waterjet vice president. "We've done a lot of cutting, but this was definitely one of the more challenging operations."
Working off a barge, the waterjet contractor pumped the river water out of each pile, then dropped their waterjet cutting device inside the pile. Their ingenious system utilized two high flow cutting heads that were powered hydraulically from a motion device positioned slightly above the cutting heads to allow for better visibility in case the pile began filling with water during the cutting process. The cutting head speed, direction, high pressure water and abrasive feed were controlled from a remote console on the barge. They used a 36,000 psi Jet Edge iP36-250DX diesel-powered waterjet intensifier pump to create the ultra-high pressure water, hydraulically power the cutting tool and pneumatically power the abrasive feed. Midwest Mobile Waterjet has nine Jet Edge waterjet pumps, including five diesel pumps and four electric pumps.
"We pumped the water out of the pile prior to the cutting operation," Gleeson recalled. "It would leak in slightly during the cut, but the mud kept it from gushing in, otherwise it would have filled all the way to the top of the pile. I had to get it done quickly. The Jet Edge pump was ideal for the project because it has hydraulic and air auxiliary power on the pump, making set up much faster."
Visibility was a huge challenge, Gleeson noted. His crew used reflectors, spotlights and air movers to help them with visibility during the process.
"We were cutting from 50 feet away and could not see what we were cutting," he recalled. "You're looking down the pipe and all you see is steam."
The crew cut each pile in about 20 minutes, cutting through the 5/8" thick steel using 2 ½ gpm of 35,000 psi water and two pounds of abrasive per minute. After the cuts were complete, a special cement mix was pumped into the pile to act as a "plug," then the top portion of the piles were lifted out and hauled away. Plugging the holes quickly and completely was critical because the piles were driven into man-made Mississippi River levy and the integrity of the levy could not be jeopardized.
"We cut the piles that were in the deepest water and would never be accessible with standard excavating equipment," Gleeson said. "We ended up cutting out 10 of the piles. It was very fast and easy to set up and much safer and more efficient than using divers. The cut quality and steel separation was also much better with the waterjet as divers were hand cutting with no visibility and were trying to cut with soft mud behind the steel, which can be a challenge."
Find Out More
Midwest Mobile Waterjet
http://mmwaterjet.com
651-755-7089
Jet Edge
Information Request Form
1-800-JET-EDGE (538-3343)