The technical and commercial realities of today’s broad energy landscape and specifically the directional drilling market demand that an alternative be added to the RSS roster. The rig was custom designed and built especially to Hadlee and Brunton’s requirements to best suit the New Zealand environment. A new direction for RSS directional drilling technology. Having this international power house behind Hadlee and Brunton has provided them with an invaluable international support team to assist in all aspects of any project from early design right through to completion. Herrenknecht has been involved in over 2,600 projects worldwide covering all diameters, in all geologies and in every area of application – railway, metro, road, utility, pipelines, hydropower, mining and exploration.

Herrenknecht is the largest tunneling manufacturer in the world and are behind most of the worlds largest tunneling projects such as the Channel Tunnel between England and France and the “Waterview Connection” under the Auckland harbor. The technology of this rig far exceeds anything else currently available in New Zealand. This directional boring beauty is used for large bore and or long distance pipe installations in the utilities sector throughout the country. It is the only European Maxi-rig in New Zealand and can drill over 1 km in length and up to 2 m in diameter. There are only 2 holes created to complete a directional drill shot, one at the entry spot for the drill to enter the ground, called a “push pit” and a second at the final location or destination of the conduit, called a “pull pit.We’re revolutionising directional drilling and boring! Hadlee & Brunton have one of the most advanced pieces of equipment for horizontal directional drilling in the world today, a custom-built 200T Maxirig from Herrenknecht. Once the drill head reaches the desired location, conduit is then connected to the drill head and the conduits are pulled back in the same horizontal hole that was bored. While it is boring a hole horizontally, a clay compound called bentonite is often injected in as a mud to help maintain ground stability. The locator tracks the tip of the drill and can tell the operator exactly where the drill head is horizontally, at precisely what depth it is, what amount of pressure it is exerting. One worker operates the drill while the other worker uses an electro-magnetic device called a locator. Directional drilling changes that.ĭirectional drilling requires the use of a drilling machine that is usually no larger than 2m wide and 4 meters long and 2 workers. The process would take days or weeks and was, on the overall, highly obtrusive, and destructive. Traditionally, equipment or manpower would be required to dig up the ground to create a trench to place pipe or conduit in and then backfill, destroying the existing landscape. HDD is very attractive because it allows water lines, sewers lines, power lines, fiber optic conduits, traditional cable conduits, irrigation lines, gas lines, and telephone lines to be installed with minimal or no disruption to landscaping, driveways, sidewalks.ĭirectional drilling allows operators to drill (bore) horizontally without having to create an open trench or disturb the surface conditions across an expanse of ground. Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), has become a viable and cost-efficient method for installing underground utilities and conduits for both homeowners and businesses alike.

Directional drilling technology