DA Smith's tunnel drilling services include coring and rotary drilling at any angle inside tunnels and the installation of associated geotechnical instrumentation, including extensometers, stress cells, piezometers, and datalogger systems. Coring diameters include B, N, H, P, and 5.6-inch-diameter, including oriented core when desired. DA Smith works with multiple recognized geophysical vendors to provide (subcontract) downhole optical, acoustic, and other geophysical or structural logging services and interpretation when specified.
DA Smith's skid-mounted drills can be transported readily by wheeled equipment or rail in most tunnels, and our larger track-mounted drills are self-tramming inside larger tunnels. Our permissible drills are MSHA certified and can operate in gassy environments. Services can be scaled to satisfy virtually any tunneling scope.
Tunnel drilling services include:
- Core drilling for geotechnical characterization
- Oriented core
- Downhole deviation surveys
- Directional coring along tunnel alignments
- Directional rotary drilling
- Downhole geophysical and structural logging with subcontracted firms
- Utility and drain hole drilling
- Water monitoring well construction
- Water hammer drilling for sensitive sites where air hammer drilling is prohibited
- Geotechnical sampling and testing
- Installation of geotechnical instrumentation and data logging systems
- In situ stress measurements in host rock