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Your First Stop for Piledriving Technology News

MCM Construction of Northern California is one of the largest bridge building contractors on the West Coast. They just landed the S.F. Bay Bridge Touchdown project in Oakland, CA. Jim Carter, President of MCM Construction, chose a APE D180 diesel hammer to drive his 6’ diameter pipe pile for the foundation of this project. George Stevenson, MCM Lead Engineer, designed the Bottom Drive System to accommodate the tight clearances of the pile to trestle tolerances. The complete driving system with the APE 54” leads, the APE D180 and the MCM Bottom Drive all work together for a clean piledriving set up.
The APE D180 is set up with a hydraulic tripping system that pushes the trip from the bottom of the hammer. This unique design keeps the hammer shorter, enabling them to use a shorter section of leads. This is critical when you have 130,000lbs of piledriving equipment hanging from your hook.
In addition to the driving system it was decided to operate the APE D180 using Bio-Fuel and Bio-Oil making this hammer environmentally friendly. Randy Smith, MCM Superintendent, consulted with APE on the critical specifications to ensure maximum performance of the D180 using this bio-fuel.
Randy Notnegel, Piledriving Superintendent for MCM Construction, put the D180 into action using an APE 260 Power Unit to operate the tripping device. With this power unit it takes approximately 12 seconds to trip the hammer from start to finish and Randy knows his business as he set the first 6’ diameter pipe pile in the template and drove it home with the APE D180 Bio-Diesel Hammer. Absolutely Flawless!
Keep in touch for more to come!

Gemini Drilling of Kernersville North Carolina was awarded the contract to install all of the 8′-6″ dia drilled shafts for the new “Fantasy Harbor” bridge over the intercoastal waterway in Myrtle Beach SC. They knew the going was going to get tough…..so they did what all smart contractors do, Called APE! Project manager Mark Doskicil contacted APE Mid-Atlantic in Virginia Beach VA. and determined the APE Model 200 vibratory hammer package was the tool of choice ! Gemini took the hammer to a test shaft project in Valdosta GA to do some test shafts for the GA D.O.T. before moving to Myrtle Beach. Mark said “the APE hammer is the best we’ve ever used, hands down” APE wishes Gemini Drilling a safe & productive project.
Call your nearest APE branch for all your piledriving & foundation equipment needs !

Spearin Preston & Burrows needed to upgrade their aging fleet of pile driving equipment for work on the Hudson River. They purchased 2 APE D46 diesel hammers and an APE 200 Vibro for the work at Pier 62/63(Chelsea Piers) driving 24″ concrete piles and a pair of D30 diesels plus an APE 200 Vibro for Pier 86 (Intrepid Pier) driving 24″ pipe piles on the Hudson River. The pile schedule was agressive enough to need an additional 200 vibro rental for both jobs.

Special thanks to Andy Murad and everyone else at Spearin Preston & Burrows who viewed APE as the obvious choice for their very large pile driving equipment purchase.

While working in Charlotte, NC one of your 35- AT’s goes down. The good news: you are in the city where your 35-AT was manufactured. So, you make the call for the necessary parts. The bad news: your are told it will be FIVE weeks before you can get your parts. Then someone on your crew remembers that American Piledriving Equipment and J & M Foundation can supply you with parts for your “green” equipment.
Once again, A.P.E. worked together from across the country to get A.D.F. back to work. From FL, to NC, to Seattle, Wa. the A.P.E. team got the parts together on Friday Afternoon and had them on site the next morning. By Saturday Afternoon, A.D.F. was back at work…no FIVE week wait!
American Piledriving Equipment knows the value of teamwork! The “old-timers” at A.P.E. understand this concept and believe in it…anything less is just bad business!
Give us a call and let the A.P.E team work for you!