Driving piles with a 15 ton excavator and rock hammer.

[coastlogger]

I know someone who once drove some piles using a backhoe and rock hammer, hammering on a heavy steel plate on top of pile.
I need to drive 4 10 inch creosote piles into some sand mud beach material.i have a 15 ton and a rammer s29 rock hammer.Haven't got the plate organized yet. Anyone tried anything like this?
If I can get 5 or 6 feet of penetration I'm probably fine.

 

[JaredV]

I've seen a picture of it being done. Someone was putting in rows of piling in the Toutle River upstream of the sediment dam for structure to catch trash and sediment from Mt St Helens. I think they welded a plate with a short piece of pipe to go over the top of the piling to the shank and used another excavator with a grapple to stand the piling up. Bigger machines, probably 250 size or so.

 

[heymccall]

Given the right soil conditions (no rock), a vibratory plate compactor works well.

 

[MikeVG]

We used one of these on the end of a backhoe to drive piles into the water for a retaining wall for docks. Just welded a short length of pipe that fit over the piles to the bottom of the plate packer to "steer" the piles. Pulled a string line and went at it. Worked great unless you hit a rock. I would think it would work even better on a 15 ton excavtor - more stable platform.

 

[skyking1]

sounds like a fun project.
I worked for a company called Geopier, and we had some custom swivels and long shaft compactors on a 200 cat for building rock columns.
We did all sorts of things with hammers.
I have put a shoe on a hoe pack and driven 2" sleeves under roads, with mixed results.
What I would suggest is a second machine for one day. It does not need to be as big.
The main problems:
1) limited height with any excavator/hammer. It will be difficult to get enough height, and more so when adding tooling to the hammer.
2) standing up the pile, as it relates to #1.
When we drive pile, we pull it up into the hammer with the whip line, then take the whole mess over and get it on line and drive.
You don't have a whip line or hydraulic winch on that excavator, and you lack the height anyway.
The second machine you can secure the pile to the back of the bucket very firmly, up near the top with some straps or binders. Now you have it and can put it on line and in the starter hole. You can hold it while the hammer guy goes after it.
This way you don't have to put much of a drive shoe on it to capture the pile top. I would build a little bit of a cup to stay on it, but it does not need to provide the alignment. The second hoe does it.

EDIT: I see @JaredV already mentioned the second machine.

 

[coastlogger]

Thanks that's the stuff I needed. Have a second excavator available so that should not be a problem. The height is likely not a problem either as well be on a barge which is 10 or so feet high.

 

[skyking1]

OK that makes a huge difference!
When are we doing this job?

 

[skyking1]

Yeah he had me at barge.