Friday, March 14, 2008

That's A Drill

Saw this huge drill outside the office this week. I know this construction effort involves an underground passageway from our building complex to the subway station, but I can't quite figure out why they're drilling such deep holes. Anyway, it is a cool machine to watch in action. And MUCH quieter than the pile driver I once had outside my condo window in Hawaii.



It wasn't actually running in this photo, but I've seen it in operation earlier. It was interesting to see the dirt riding up the drill bit and falling out to the ground. In the photo below, there's a closeup showing where the dirt falls down a chute.



This is just like a hand drill, but on a much larger scale. And for whatever reason they're drilling, they're making several holes. They are moving this drill around the site and preparing lots of holes. I'll just have to wait and see what develops.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I've been (un)lucky enough to be close to several build sights since I've moved here. From what I can gather, they drill those, then sink I-beams and concrete down the holes to anchor the tall buildings. I watched them build what became a 20-something story building and those anchors went down probably 60-80 feet. Oddly, they seemed to dig the basement levels after putting them in, so perhaps they didn't go quite so far down under the building.

Chris said...

Ok, I understand you. What's curious is that I've met the developer of this complex, and he told me that in this area they are building an underground complex that will connect our buildings to the nearby train station. I guess the underground complex will have an above-ground component, too.