by Diana Barnum
What does it take to get crew of horizontal
directional drilling (HDD) teams to successfully complete a project?
According to well-known team coach Vince Lombardi, “Individual commitment
to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work.” But what about
drilling teams? Any tips of the trade?
“We had a special projects’
division come in to manage operations,” said Scott Homberger, vice
president of Midwest Region of The Fishel Company.
Homberger is
referring to the biggest HDD project his company completed. The special
projects’ division is made up of teammates, the official word for Fishel’s
employees. The division managed about 12 crews of teammates or more than
120 people from the Fishel Company when they recently completed Columbus
FiberNet (CFN), one of the largest single conduit systems in the Central
Ohio area. The $36M project is a 70-mile network that surrounds the
Columbus area similarly to the I-270 route around the outer belt. CFN
provides connectivity by means of 20 inner-ducts, each 1 1/2 in diameter,
and with service maintenance access via more than 1,110 manholes every 3-
to 600-feet. This translates into the maximum number of customers being
able to access high-speed data throughout hi-tech business corridors in
Polaris, Westerville, Worthington, Dublin, Gahanna, Easton and Hilliard -
all home to the top 150 commercial broadband customers, according to
CFN.
“We also also have safety coordinators in area offices who provide
unofficial inspections throughout the year, like an in-house OSHA
(Occupational and Safety health Administration) to police ourselves,” said
Homberger. “And we reward good safety practices.”
Basically if a
teammate does not cost the company money in safety-related issues, they
are awarded incentives like cameras, apparel and equipment.
The
teammate concept began at Fishel in the early 1980’s at the establishment
of a union-free company. Team strategies at Fishel also include employees’
participation in profit sharing.
For the CFN project, teammates ran
about 32 drills, mostly Vermeer models. They operated self-contained
compact D24 X 40 Navigators with automated rod loaders and D80 X 120
Navigators with rack-and-pinion drive systems, 12,000 ft-lb of rotational
torque, a 225 HP John Deere engine, a four-position hydraulic stakedown
and speed potentiometers. Operators also ran three-speed D33 X 44 midsized
Navigators and Vermeer Evacuator #900 units. They added Bentonite from
Baroid Industrial Drilling Products in the bores.
CFN is not the only
underground system in the area. Fishel is also the parent company of
Dublink, an underground conduit system built solely through Dublin’s
business district for telecommunications access approximately 1 1/2 years
earlier. This inner-duct system has 12 conduits, each 1 1/4-inches, for
voice, data and video systems.
Fishel is a pioneer in the HDD industry
in Ohio. Company teammates led the way in HDD in the Columbus area by
using one of the first DitchWitch air-propelled directional drills called
the Tru-Trac, similar to a 4-ft. long Hole Hog or pneumatic whistle that
looked like a bullet yet pounded like a jackhammer.
“We were one of the
first to use directional drilling in Columbus, working on the railroad
under the Convention Center for AT&T,” said Eric Smith, president of
Dublink and Columbus FiberNet. “We’d been in the boring business for
years, mostly average bores. And when the True Trak came out, we were one
of the first with model #2 or #3.”
Fishel has also joined the pioneer
efforts of the Ohio HDD Association. With fellow members, they team up for
their common cause or mission: “to enhance the skills and credibility of
all horizontal directional drillers and underground construction
professionals, develop and exchange industry knowledge, and to promote HDD
and underground construction and the understanding of its benefits”. The
group will be hosting an exhibit at the Ohio Construction Expo on February
20 and 21 at Veterans Memorial in downtown Columbus.
So success for
drilling teams? Lobardi’s statement goes for drillers, too. Or in the
words of Homberger, “All teammates contribute to the bottom line.”
For
more information about HDD teamwork, contact Team Fishel, 1600 Walcutt
Rd., Columbus, OH 43228. Call: (800) 829-4504; fax inquiries to: (614)
850-4419, or visit them online at: http://teamfishel.com . For more team
info, contact the Ohio HDD Association office C/O Dan Schlosser, P. O. Box
310, Caledonia, Ohio USA 43314. Call: (800) 537-6585; fax: (419) 845-2026
or e-mail: ASSNHQ@gte.net |