|
Precision Drilling & Blasting |
Dykon Blasting
Union Pacific Train Wreck
Sulfur River, Naples, TX |
| Reinforced
Concrete Explosive Demolition |
 At 3:00
PM, Sunday, March 11th, Marty Hunter of Hunter
Demolition contacted Jared Redyke with an emergency job.
A Union Pacific freight train
derailed on the bridge over the Sulfur River, near
Naples, Texas. The wreck took out two of the bridge
piers in the middle of the river. |
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| No injuries, no
casualties, and no hazardous waste in the river. But the railroad
line was paralyzed until a new bridge could be constructed.
The exact cause of the derailment was not known
but track failure was suspected. The freight cars tore through the
bridge decking and sheared 2 piers off and left them in the middle
of the river with bridge beams, rail cars, and cargo lying on top of
them. |
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The
pilings for the new bridge could not be driven until
these concrete piers were moved out of the way.
Hulcher Services was onsite 24
hours a day pulling the wrecked freight cars from the
river. Hunter Demolition was in charge of removing
those concrete bridge piers from the path of the new
bridge being constructed from both ends, 24 hours a
day. |
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| The water over the
reinforced concrete piers was so deep that it was making mechanical
methods of concrete demolition difficult and time consuming. The
bridge had to be completed and the railroad line opened as soon as
possible.
New bridge construction was coming from both
sides and meeting in the middle of the river, and time was growing
short. The bridge crew would soon have to stop if those piers
weren't out of the way. There was only one way to get those
underwater piers demolished on schedule. |
| Dykon
arrived onsite, ready to go, at 1:30 AM, Monday morning,
March 12th, less than 8 hours after being called.
Following a 6:00 AM meeting with
the onsite project managers, Marty Hunter with Hunter
Demolition ordered floating barge sections for Dykon's
drilling equipment to work off of. |
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| The next task was to
get this equipment to the wreck site. There was no road access to
the site closer than half a mile. Everything had to be loaded on
freight cars, railed in and offloaded with cranes into the work
area.
Working together with an army of on-site
contractors, work began on the explosive demolition of the
underwater piers laying in the bottom of the Sulphur river. The
first step was to drill the holes for the charges into the
underwater pier sections which had been torn loose from the footings
from the impact of the loaded freight cars when they fell through
the existing bridge decking and were left in the bottom of the river
directly in the path of the new bridge being constructed.
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There were two piers that had to be
removed. The first was under ten feet of water with
very little current to deal with. Tons and tons of
ballast were hauled in to support the equipment which
was removing the tangled freight cars from over the top
of the pier sections.
The drill barge was held steady with
an excavator setting on top of the ballast. holes were
drilled from the surface of the water and sleeved with
PVC pipes which would later be used to load the
explosives through, and into the holes drilled in the
piers. |
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| Once the
first one was demolished, work began immediately on the
second pier. The second pier was the toughest one. It
was in the bottom of the deepest part of the sulphur
river, right in the center of the channel where the
current was the swiftest, under 18 feet of water.
There was no ballast out in the
river for equipment to set on and steady Dykon's drill
barge. Divers were sent down to locate the corners of
the pier.
Alpha Pile & Railroad provided a
huge spud barge anchored in place to hold the smaller
drill barge steady while the holes were drilled into the
piers for the explosives. |
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| The water in the center of the
channel was so deep and swift that the pvc pipes could not be
stabbed into the drilled holes from the surface. Divers were sent
down to help case the holes as they were drilled. |
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When the
drilling was completed, the explosives used for
demolishing the piers was loaded through the pvc pipe
casings.
Then all barges and equipment were
moved away from the shot area to protect them from the
mild water wake that would result from the explosion
under the water. |
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| The project was completed safely,
successfully and quickly. There were numerous on-site contractors
who contributed to the success of this project. This project could
not have been completed in the time it was without the hard work and
coordination of all of the contractors present.
Dykon would like to extend our personal thanks
to everyone involved for the manner in which the work was
coordinated and carried out. You couldn't ask for a better group to
work with. We were honored to be able to work with such a group of
professionals in the expeditious completion of the project and the
restoring of the Union Pacific Railroad to its normal activity. |
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See our
Online Photo Album of the project |
See a
video clip of the blasting |
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Project contact information |
John E. Dunsworth
Director of Bridge Maintenance
Union Pacific Railroad
281-350-7519 |
Marty Hunter
Hunter Demolition, Inc.
San Antonio, Texas
210-227-5100
|
Hulcher Professional
Services, Inc.
Ft. Worth, Texas Office
817-306-0447 |
Alpha Railroad, Inc.
George Dupont
318-377-8720
|
G & G Marine
Dan Gilbert
Houston, Texas
281-367-8352 |
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