Man Killed In Drilling Accident
Failures
Drilled shaft rig falls into hole – Iowa
On May 15 a drilled shaft rig operated by Mid America Drilling Corp was nearly swallowed by the 9-ft diameter hole it was drilling for a cell tower foundation near Harlan, Iowa. Fortunately nobody was injured and the truck did not suffer any significant damage.
In Arizona, the standard of practice is to use a temporary surface casing to prevent dangerous failures like that. I once saw pictures of a drilling contractor superindendent almost get sucked into a collapsing shaft, even with the temporary casing. Pretty scary stuff. Source: Harlan Tribune. (Photo by Samantha Bruck)
Miscellaneous
Hollow stem auger strikes NY Subway Train
A 10 inch hollow stem auger grazed a packed subway car on the NY MTA’s F line last week scratching the side of the train and breaking windows. Fortunately there were no injuries. I think […]
Failures
Video: Foundation drill rig topples and strikes neighboring building
A foundation drill rig toppled over at a condo site in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida and struck an adjacent building. No immediate cause of the accident has been reported, but the region had been experiencing […]