Date
03 Jun 1988, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm
Abstract
The U.S. Bureau of Mines recently demonstrated the accurate directional drilling of a near-horizontal borehole with the objective of intercepting a designated target. The project was conducted at the Navajo Dam for the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior. The Bureau of Reclamation's objective was to determine the feasibility of accurately drilling long near-horizontal boreholes, from the surface, in lieu of constructing a tunnel under an embankment dam from which shorter boreholes would be accurately drilled to control water seepage. As a result of the demonstrated drilling accuracy, the Bureau of Reclamation can consider the option of using near horizontal boreholes drilled from the surface at a cost of $100-200/ft instead of constructing access tunnels at $2,000/ft from which drainage boreholes would be drilled to control water seepage at embankment dams.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
2nd Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1988 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Kravits, Stephen J. and Harrel, Hunter C., "Demonstrating Borehole Drilling Accuracy at the Navajo Dam" (1988). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 9.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/2icchge/icchge-session5/9
Demonstrating Borehole Drilling Accuracy at the Navajo Dam
The U.S. Bureau of Mines recently demonstrated the accurate directional drilling of a near-horizontal borehole with the objective of intercepting a designated target. The project was conducted at the Navajo Dam for the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior. The Bureau of Reclamation's objective was to determine the feasibility of accurately drilling long near-horizontal boreholes, from the surface, in lieu of constructing a tunnel under an embankment dam from which shorter boreholes would be accurately drilled to control water seepage. As a result of the demonstrated drilling accuracy, the Bureau of Reclamation can consider the option of using near horizontal boreholes drilled from the surface at a cost of $100-200/ft instead of constructing access tunnels at $2,000/ft from which drainage boreholes would be drilled to control water seepage at embankment dams.
