The northeast of England is a challenging environment for civil engineering. The ground is notoriously ‘bony’: a patchy matrix of sand, gravel and riverbed boulders, plus Tyne Valley hardstone. So, diverting multiple utility infrastructures to facilitate a new highway bridge and roundabout near the town of Hexham was no small task.
AHUS Limited – a family-run utility service provider based in the industrial city of Newcastle – was called in to do the work. First off, AHUS had to collaborate closely with a lineup of utility companies to design, plan and program the rerouting of telecoms, water, gas and power grids using the HDD technique.
On the Hexham project, an S3 horizontal directional drill by Vermeer really came into its own. “It was the footprint-to-power ratio of the S3 that caught my eye,” says AHUS topman Andy Hughes. “There’s a lot of hard sandstone and limestone hereabouts; even volcanic rock in places. We need machinery with the muscle to match, but it has to be compact, so that we can transport it on a standard wagon and operate in tight spaces.”
Versatility was another plus point. “We get asked to put in all sorts, from sewers to fiber-optic cables,” said Hughes. “Any kind of terrain, any kind of subsoil. It’ll vary along the length of a single borehole. For us, it’s vital that a horizontal drill can handle it all, without a prolonged idle period every time you hit a transition. In our line of work, time really is money.”
That goes a long way to explaining why Hughes is so pleased with the latest version of the Vermeer D40X55DR S3 horizontal directional drill: a complete rod basket and tool change can be completed in about an hour. And the interval between changes is impressive too, thanks to the high basket capacity.
A retail development in Gateshead presented AHUS with a particular challenge. There were residential properties on the other side of the road, as well as behind the site. “Most of the houses in central Gateshead are what we call terraced,” explains AHUS Crew Manager Brian Usher. “They’re connected together in a row, opening straight onto the street, just 15 meters or so from the buildings opposite. Heavy construction machinery can shake the foundations of the entire block, and the houses lining the street act like the walls of an echo chamber.”
Not surprisingly, therefore, strict noise limits were in force. “The time window for getting the power cables in was tight,” Usher recalls. “Our people were starting early and working late to make the deadline. And there were guys making checks with sound level meters. Boy, was I glad that the S3 is so quiet!” Hydraulic on-demand cooling allows the machine’s sound power numbers to be low in its class. “It’s amazing, really,” chuckles Usher. “You’re driving through sand and shale with a bit of kit that delivers the best part of 180 kilonewtons of thrust, while people living round about hear no more noise than if someone two doors down was mowing their lawn.”
Usher also reckons that the S3 played a big part in enabling AHUS to get the job done on time. “You’re a hostage to fortune sometimes,” he says. “Events outside your control can blow your schedule out of the water. What if a greasing hose clogs, say? You’re making good progress and then suddenly your drilling machine is out of action until you can get an engineer onsite. An issue like that can’t happen with the S3, because the hoses are heated. Or maybe you hit a band of compact gravel on a site where it was supposed to be nothing but mud. I’ve used some drills where you would lose hours changing the gear in a situation like that. Not with the S3: only the drill head needs switching. A short pause and you’re back in business.”
As Usher’s experience confirms, convenience is designed into this industry-leading directional drill. From the Nylatron wear pads that require no daily maintenance to the accessible engine bay and mud pump, every feature of the S3 has been carefully thought through to minimize idle time and maximize productivity.
The Vermeer commitment to operator-friendly design is reflected in the cab as well. “Not long back, we were hired to do the drains for a new milking shed that was going up on a dairy farm in the Tyne Valley,” continues Usher. “The construction company had agreed to a timetable that meant getting the work done over the summer. Well, of course, lots of machine operators are lying on a beach in Spain at that time of year, and we were pretty stretched. The only way we could take on the job was if we sent a guy who joined us just before. A good guy with bags of experience, but all of it working for a company that doesn’t use Vermeer machines.”
Any worries that the new operator might find it hard to adjust were soon dispelled. “Barry did one session on the simulator, and it was like he’d been using the S3 for years,” Usher said with a smile. “I think it’s because the joystick and other controls are intuitive for anyone with his background. He was soon saying he never wanted to go back to the machines he used before. Barry loved how easy everything is to reach, and the way that the cab’s designed so that you can look at the overview screen without having to turn away from the job itself.”
Back at AHUS’s head office in Newcastle, Company Director Andy Hughes reveals the strategic thinking that led to the acquisition of the S3. “A horizontal directional drill is a big investment. With something like that, you don’t just look at the price tag, you look at the payback. How profitable is it going to be to use the machine? That means considering things such as reliability, ease of maintenance and running costs. The S3 ticks all those boxes. We use much less drilling fluid now, for example, so our disposal costs are down. The wear pads are cheaper to change as well. And, if the drill ever does need maintenance, we can normally do it in the field, saving us time and money.”
AHUS now has three Vermeer drill rigs. As Hughes explains, “They give us the capability to install pipework up to 1000 mm – in any ground from clay to limestone and bed rock. With the machinery at our disposal, nothing intimidates us!”
It wasn’t only the qualities of the machine that persuaded AHUS, however. “We considered the whole package,” says Hughes. “In particular the level of support. When you hit a problem, you want it sorted quickly, because when you’re not drilling, you’re not earning. And the schedule for the whole project can be at stake. What we really like about Vermeer is that they look at things from our viewpoint and focus on the things that make a difference to us. Their support staff know their stuff and understand the challenges we face on a day-to-day basis. If you run into an issue, they make it their business to help you find a solution. They’ll visit you onsite; even get a bentonite engineer to you within 12 hours.”
AHUS is a solution-oriented family business, typical of the SMEs that form the bedrock of every healthy economy. Having started with a single used machine back in 2013, the company now employs a 100+ people and delivers a comprehensive range of utility services. Services that improve lives and help to drive prosperity in a region redefining itself for the post-industrial era.
“We’re a commercial operation and we choose our partners on a commercial basis,” says Hughes. “But, with Vermeer, there’s more to it than that. They’re on our wavelength. I like that.”
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