Gabe’s Construction Overcomes Permitting, Environmental Challenges on Gas Pipeline
JUNE 21, 2018 Featured Story
What seemed like an ordinary natural gas transmission pipeline project for Gabe’s Construction Co. Inc. last year turned out to be anything but.
As the Sheboygan, Wisconsin-based contractor continues drilling forward into its 76th year of continuous operation since being founded by Jacob Gabrielse in 1942, Gabe’s Construction embarked on a project in the fall 2017 that looked relatively straightforward on plan and profile paper.
However, as most are aware in the construction industry and especially the pipeline horizontal directional drilling (HDD) industry, work is rarely as simple as it seems.
Through teamwork and communication with the general pipeline contractor, Foltz Welding (Patoka, Illinois), the pipeline operator, Gabe’s nationwide network of materialmen and vendors, as well as its field and office staff, Gabe’s was able to overcome five distinct obstacles and successfully pullback 2,495 lf of 24-in. diameter, 0.5-in wall thickness, abrasion resistant overcoating (ARO) treated steel pipe. The pipe was installed up to 100 ft below surface, crossing 610 lf of the shallow Wabash River, multiple local levees and an active railroad in soil and rock geotechnical conditions in western Indiana.