Connecting under the river; an intersect drill in the Dutch Alblasserwaard area

Brownline has recently surveyed an intersect drill in the Dutch city of Papendrecht, for which the intersect point was located exactly under the busy Merwede river. This drill contributes to the construction of a new underground high voltage power line in the Alblasserwaard region.

The power usage in The Netherlands has been increasing for years, even more so in recent times. Besides the large number of people currently working from home, the use of electric cars and bikes has risen steeply and shops are open longer hours and more often. In order to be ahead of an even larger demand, the power companies have started expanding the network capacity by renovation and new construction.

One of these expansions is the construction of a 6 kilometer (3.7 miles) long 150 kV high voltage connection between the power stations in Alblasserdam and Dordrecht Merwede harbor. This brand new subterranean connection will largely follow the same route as the existing above ground power lines and cross the Merwede river in Papendrecht.

For this 880 meter (2887 feet) intersect drill, Brownline used the Drillguide Gyro Steering Tool in combination with the Radar. The intersect point was located at 22,5 meter below the Merwede's river bed, roughly halfway through the 400 meters that were to be drilled under the river. The Merwede river is a very busy shipping route and part of the waterways connected to the Port of Rotterdam. Besides busy waterways, the drill trajectory also passes many buildings and roads, all causing major external interference. These factors, along with the trajectory crossing a river, made it impossible to use conventional steering systems that require surface tracking.

The combination of the Drillguide GST and Radar led to a successful and efficient intersect, that made sure that the entire drill could be completed within a very short time frame!

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