July 2016, Vol. 71 No. 7
Features
TTC Announces Second Annual Auger Boring School
The Trenchless Technology Center has announced details for its second annual Auger Boring School to be held Oct. 3-7 at the National Trenchless Technology Research Facility at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, LA.
The school is being sponsored by Underground Construction magazine, American Augers, Baroid Industrial Drilling, Barbco, Brierley Associates, Midwest Mole, McMillen Jacobs Associates, Thompson Pumps, Permalok, Northwest Pipe Company and Lincoln Builders, Inc.
“We’re developing the school to provide students with the knowledge and background needed to understand the important components of auger boring operations that are required to produce successful projects,” said Tom Iseley, Ph.D., P.E., TTC director and professor of civil engineering at Louisiana Tech.
The school is an intensive five-day course about auger boring methods for pipeline installation, a well-established and perhaps most common trenchless application. It includes both classroom and field training. The school covers all aspects of auger boring projects, from design to construction, with a special focus on safety. The curriculum is taught by the foremost auger boring experts in the country.
Jadranka Simicevic, TTC assistant director, is coordinating the event. She said the course is designed for contractors, project superintendents, foremen, crew members, estimators, public officials, engineers, educators, highway department personnel, public utility personnel and representatives of regulatory agencies.
“Anyone who is involved with the auger boring industry will profit greatly by attending this course,” said Simicevic.
Broad education, training
The school consists of classroom lectures (modules) and hands-on practical sessions. Lectures are given in designated classrooms on Louisiana Tech campus. Practical sessions are held in Louisiana Tech labs and at the field testing site located behind the TTC National Trenchless Technology Research Facility at South Campus. A state-of-the-art outdoor facility has been constructed for hands-on training.
The field operations include two auger boring installations performed from a shallow pit into a wide soil box built next to it. The bottom half of the soil box is below the ground surface and the remaining part is above. A concrete slab inside the pit holds two launching pads, one used with steerable and the other with a non-steerable auger boring machine.
The soil box built on the opposite side of the auger boring machines is 36 feet long and filled with varied soil types including clay (dirt), dry sand, wet sand and gravel (crushed concrete).
Steel pipe joints, 20-feet long, are used in the field operations. One boring installation uses 24- inch pipe joints that require traditional welding and the other a 30-inch Permalok steel interlocking pipe.
On the last day of school, another auger boring installation from a pit (8 feet deep) into the ground is performed in the afternoon after the exam and graduation. Attendees who have to leave early because of travel are not required to participate. Those who stay have a true real-life auger boring experience.
The Trenchless Technology Center at Louisiana Tech University is a cooperative research center for academia, government and industry. TTC’s mission is to advance trenchless technology by serving as an independent source of knowledge, research and education in the field of trenchless construction.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Trenchless Technology Center,
(800) 626-8659,
www.latech.edu/tech/engr/ttc
or contact
Jadranka Simicevic,
TTC Assistant Director, jadranka@latech.edu
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