Sonic Drill Rig

The Explorations Unit and the Geology/Hydrogeology and HTRW Design Section from Savannah District assisted the Philadelphia District with geotechnical drilling efforts at Francis E. Water Dam. The work included installing new piezometers to expand the monitoring system of the dam. The Savannah District team utilized our state of the art Sonic Drill Rig to drill and install the new instrumentation to depths of over 100 feet deep at in critical areas of the dam. The new piezometers will help Philadelphia District engineers evaluate the condition of the dam and provide valuable information for risk assessments. This instrumentation is an essential component to the dam safety, and this type of drilling is considered invasive to the dam structure and requires major coordination, skills, and expertise from the entire team. The video shows the team using the sonic drill rig to advance the drill casing in preparation for installing the new piezometer.