Dynamic power for district heating - Horizontal rammer gets Moselle River crossing underway
In the town of Pont-à-Mousson on the Moselle in France, the district heating network in place since 2016 was to be extended by a further 10 kilometres on the other side of the river, which meant that the river had to be crossed. To enable Groupe Gendry to drill the 300-metre-long HDD bore, a GRUNDORAM had to be used: as the soft ground on the river bank is not suitable for drilling, contractor Forages du Nord-Ouest used its 12-year-old GRUNDORAM GOLIATH to drive a 30-metre-long casing pipe into each bank at an angle of 30 degrees, through which the steerable bore with an 80-tonne HDD system could enter and exit.
Using the GOLIATH, which has lost none of its 18,600 Nm of power in 12 years of service, the two casings, in the form of two spiral-welded, 12.5 mm thick DN 1,220 mm steel pipes, were driven in at a remarkable rate of 20 metres per hour. Now nothing stood in the way of the actual laying of the district heating pipeline 40 metres below the water level, and the extension of the district heating network was completed on schedule at the end of October. Thanks to the sustainable and gentle trenchless technology, the "Mussipontains" on the left bank of the Moselle are now also supplied with district heating from biomass.
- Pont-à-Mousson / France 2023
- Project: HDD-Assist operation for a 300 metre long culvert under the Moselle river to extend the local district heating network.
- Application: District heating
- Method: Dynamic pipe ramming
- In use: GRUNDORAM Goliath
