MinCon TPR

Public Relations and Technical Writing for the International Construction and Mining sectors

#5 Brandon Mews, London EC2Y 8BE, UK. Tel/Fax: ++44 7588 0898. Email: mincon@mincontpr.com

PRESS RELEASE

Robbins TBM helps rescue Utah water project

Following the abandonment of a major section of the 4 ½ mile (7.25 km) long Upper Diamond Fork water tunnel in Utah, a factory re-built and modernized Robbins TBM was used to drive a new tunnel to help complete this multi million dollar project. The Robbins TBM was employed to bore the 5,194 ft (1,584 m) long new tunnel, completing the job in only 66 days from machine start-up, and ahead of schedule.

The contractor, a joint venture of Obayashi and W.W. Clyde, leased a refurbished and modernized Robbins TBM - Model 1218-304 - from the manufacturer to undertake this job. The 190,000 lb (86 tonne) TBM's 12 ½ ft (3.81 m) cutterhead was fitted with twenty-eight 17 inch (432 mm) cutters. Maximum cutterhead thrust was 1,358,869 lbs (616 tonnes) with a maximum individual cutter load of 48,352 lbs. (21.9 tonnes). Cutterhead torque at 11.99 rpm was designed at 438,000 lbs-ft (594 kilonewton metres) and the electric motors developed 1,000 HP (746 kilowatts).

The TBM was delivered on site in November and, after assembly, was started up in December working from the western side of Tanner Ridge back towards the 6th Water Shaft. The machine broke through, on line and grade, only 66 days after start of boring and three days ahead of schedule. According to Obayashi project manager, Jim Stevens, " The machine performed very well. It was a tremendous milestone to achieve on a project that has had more than its share of difficulties."

Some difficult geology had to be negotiated. The major part of the tunnel was in the Upper Red Narrows conglomerate with some awkward voids. A best day's advance of 266 ft (81 m) was achieved and a best week of 684 ft. (209 m). The machine mined on a 4-day twin 12-hour shift basis with single-shift Fridays used for maintenance. The TBM is now being returned to Robbins for possible use on further projects.

Project background

The Diamond Fork tunnel and pipeline system, located some 20 miles (30 km) east of Provo, Utah, USA, has been designed to convey an annual average of 86,100 acre-feet (around 26 billion US gallons) (1.06 billion hectolitres) of Central Utah Project (CUP) water from Strawberry Reservoir to Utah Lake as an exchange for water stored in Jordanelle Reservoir. This will allow water that would have flowed through the Provo River to Utah Lake to be used in Salt Lake, Wasatch, and Utah Counties. The Diamond Fork System will also convey an annual average of 61,500 acre-feet (760 million hectolitres) of Strawberry Valley Project (SVP) water to the Spanish Fork River for agricultural use in South Utah County.

The Client is the Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD) which is a political subdivision of the State of Utah. It was formally established in 1964 to act as the local entity to contract with the United States of America in connection with the construction, operation, and financing of the Central Utah Project (CUP). The purpose of the Central Utah Project is to enable the State of Utah to beneficially use a substantial portion of its allotted share of the Colorado River water under the Colorado River Compact. The District sponsors the CUP which includes five specific units. Each consists of a series of dams, pipelines, reservoirs, tunnels, and aqueducts designed to assist in meeting water needs of all 10 counties through approximately the year 2020. The District, primarily a wholesaler of water to other cities and agencies, has the responsibility to plan, design, construct, operate, and maintain Project facilities, administer the sale and delivery of Project water, and repay the federal government the reimbursable costs of the CUP.

The original Upper Diamond Fork project plan envisaged two 9 ½ ft (2.90 metre) diameter tunnels - at Tanner Ridge and Red Mountain - plus a series of pipelines. This was superseded by a project, revised on cost and environmental grounds, to drive the 4 ½ mile (7.24 kilometre) 12 ½ ft (3.81 metre) diameter Upper Diamond Fork tunnel from the end of the pipeline from Utah Lake to the 6th Water Shaft (see map). This, in turn, would be fed from the Strawberry Reservoir by the existing Syar tunnel and 6th Water Aqueduct. The contract for the tunnel plus associated pipelines, shafts and water control structures was worth US $53 million initially and was awarded to a joint venture of Obayashi and W.W. Clyde in February 2000. The original schedule called for completion of the project in June 2004.

This tunnel initially proceeded extremely well, but after almost 90% of its length had been completed, nearly half of it had to be abandoned and plugged on safety grounds due to unexpected major inflows of water carrying almost lethal levels of hydrogen sulfide gas - exacerbated by a tunnel wall collapse behind the original refurbished Robbins TBM 129-182-3 used on the project. The TBM had to be abandoned at the face.

What was termed Phase 2 of the Upper Diamond Fork project was then defined. This included returning to constructing the 5,194 ft (1,584 m) long Tanner Ridge tunnel as reported above, but at 12 ½ ft (3.81 metres) diameter, to feed a pipeline which would run alongside Diamond Fork Creek down to a point where it feeds back into the non-abandoned stretch of the Upper Diamond Fork tunnel. The new US $29 million contract to construct the Tanner Ridge tunnel and pipeline to the existing tunnel section was again awarded to the Obayashi and W.W. Clyde and Co. joint venture in April last year with completion due in October 2004.

Captions to photographs and Diagrams:

1. The refurbished Robbins TBM Model 1218-304 in the plant at Solon, Ohio prior to delivery to the Tanner Ridge site.

2. Plan of the Upper Diamond Fork scheme showing the relationship between the Tanner Ridge and Diamond Fork tunnels. (Map courtesy CUWCD)

3. The Robbins TBM being assembled on site. (photo courtesy CUWCD)

4. The Robbins TBM breaks through into the 6th Water Shaft in March 2003. (Photo courtesy CUWCD)

For further information on Robbins high performance TBMs, contact: Joe Roby at The Robbins Company, 22445 76th Avenue S., Kent, WA 98032, USA. Tel: +1 253-872-0500. Fax: +1 253-872-0199. Email: robyj@robbinstbm.com, or visit the Robbins website: www.robbinstbm.com

Press Release prepared and distributed by MinCon TPR, #337 Ben Jonson House, London EC2Y 8NQ, UK. Tel/Fax: +44 207 588 0898. Email: mincontpr@aol.com

Note to editors: If you use this release, please inform MinCon TPR at the above address/e-mail and please supply us with a copy of your magazine in which the release appears, or a pdf of the article. Please also ensure that full accreditation is given for the CUWCD photographs and diagrams used as noted in the captions.

MinCon TPR

Public Relations and Technical Writing for the International Construction and Mining Sectors

#5 Brandon Mews, London EC2Y 8BE, UK. Tel/Fax: ++44 (0)207 7588 0898.

Email: mincon@mincontpr.com. Website: www.mincontpr.com

For immediate release

Simulators improve operator training and safety

The high-profile Airline Industry has made use of cockpit simulation over many years and its results in training performance and safety improvements are well documented. Simulator technology has, over the past few years, advanced to the point where the cost of mining and construction equipment simulators versus the cost of the actual equipment being simulated makes commercial sense. This point was reached two decades ago or more for aircraft and that industry has been reaping the benefits ever since. The military has also been seeing the benefits of simulation for many years and now companies producing simulators have turned their attention to mining and construction.

Simulators can be used for ab-initio training, refresher training, operator screening and evaluation. Simulator based evaluation has many advantages over traditional methods. Operators or potential employees can be assessed in a pseudo-real environment under typical conditions and can even be exposed to emergency and advanced situations such as brake or steering failure or a tyre blow-out. The simulator provides an un-biased evaluation score, thereby removing human error from the assessment process. This same unbiased evaluation score is also presented at the end of normal training or refresher training sessions. In this way the simulator is used to iron out bad habits and to improve efficiencies.

The simulator also provides an economical driving score, which includes key indicators such as brake, tyre, drill steel and bucket wear, as well as fuel usage. This economical score allows an instructor to assess where operational money is being wasted and to uplift the operating habits of all operators to a minimum standard. The operational efficiencies that can be gained from such training can quickly pay for the cost of a simulator unit. Further savings result from the reduction in accidents and, of course, simulators are a lot less costly than the training vehicles they replace and they do not need regular services, diesel fuel, oil changes or new tyres!

Safety is a key issue in the construction and mining industries. Mines and construction contractors need not only to train their operators, but may be required to keep records of this, which the simulator keeps on disk and which may be printed out at any time. Results obtained by the Venetia Mine, at which South African manufacturer ThoroughTec's cyberTRUCKTM simulators has been deployed for several years, have revealed that the number of haul truck related collisions and incidents have reduced dramatically since its introduction. This success mimics similar success stories in other industries.

Traditionally, good training has been shown to significantly improve accident statistics. International studies have held that simulators improve training and accelerate learning by between 40% and 60%. Furthermore, students enjoy being trained on the simulator. They are motivated by the fact that the decision makers see training as important and they can also show off their own abilities to their co-workers.

Nowadays Research and Development resources are being concentrated in producing simulation products for mining and construction, which are seen as major growth areas for this type of technology. Simulation in these industries is now where the military simulation industry was ten years ago.

Over the past few years, ThoroughTec has concentrated on the mining sector with sales of above-ground simulator equipment to a number of mining operations, including Palabora, Optimum, Middelburg, Venetia and Sishen in South Africa, Namdeb in Namibia and Jwaneng in Botswana. Simulators sold to these operations range from Caterpillar, Euclid and Komatsu Haul Truck simulators, based on ThoroughTec's cyberTRUCKTM platforms, to 4X4 light utility vehicle simulations based on ThoroughTec's cyberCARTM platform. These simulator units are equally applicable to the heavy construction sector.

Of late, ThoroughTec has experienced extreme interest in its latest range of simulator equipment for the training of underground operators, based on it's cyberMINETM simulator architecture.

Assmang Ltd (formerly The Associated Manganese Mines of South Africa Ltd.), South Africa, have contracted ThoroughTec to manufacture and supply one each of ThoroughTec's cyberMINETM drill rig and load-haul-dumper simulators, aimed at objectively training and evaluating operators of this equipment under standardised conditions. The aims of the simulators are not only to improve operator efficiencies, but also to inculcate safety procedures and an appreciation of cost factors relating to bad habits and equipment maintenance. Assmang have recently taken delivery of their cyberRIG unit, and delivery of the cyberLHD unit is scheduled for the end of August 2003.

ThoroughTec recently received further orders for two cyberMINETM simulators from Impala Platinum (Implats). These simulators are based on the range of low profile equipment used extensively in the platinum belt. ThoroughTec commissioned the drill rig simulator on site at Implats in March of 2003, and expect to see real production savings being recorded by the mine as a result of improved drilling performances in the near future. Implats are currently looking forward to the delivery of their cyberMINETM LHD unit, scheduled for the beginning of September 2003.

Based on the success of the local CyberRIG simulator manufactured by ThoroughTec for Sandvik Tamrock (South Africa), Sandvik Tamrock (Canada) placed an order early this year for one CyberMINETM LHD simulator system, based on the Tamrock Toro 1400 vehicle. ThoroughTec is confident that this order is one of many that will originate from the North American market in the near future.

Following hot in the footsteps of the Sandvik Tamrock (Canada) order, Atlas Copco, in partnership with Anglo Platinum, placed orders for three CyberMINETM simulator units: a drill rig, an LHD and a roof bolter, all based on the Atlas Copco range of equipment. All three simulator units are scheduled for commissioning in South Africa's platinum belt in early 2004.

Since the last quarter of 2002, ThoroughTec has received orders for eight CyberMINETM simulator units from various blue-chip clients, each of whom recognises the potential for increased personnel competencies at significantly reduced costs.

Construction is now also a major market for Thoroughtec. The cyberTRUCKTM and cyberCARTM modules are obviously of major interest in all sectors of the construction industry, while the cyberRIG and cyberLHD units are of specific interest to tunnellers. There are also cyberCRANETM modules primarily designed for container crane operators which could be adapted in other areas. The potential is almost limitless.

Photograph captions

Trainee driver's view from inside the Thoroughtec cyberTRUCK simulator set up as a Haulpak truck. The simulator is set up with all controls mimicking those of a real Haulpak truck.

Computer display from cyberTRUCK suite

Underground drill rig simulator screen. Again all controls are identical with those on the drill rig being simulated

For further details, contact Dr John Waltham, ThoroughTec, 34 Columbine Place, Durban 4051, South Africa. Email: johnw@thoroughtec.com. Tel: +27 (0)31 569 4033; Fax: +27 (0)31 569 4036. Website: www.thoroughtec.com

Note to editors: Should you use this release, please send a copy of the edition in which it appears to Thoroughtec and to MinConTPR at the addresses shown, or email a pdf.