VIBRATION MONITORING CASE STUDY:
Duchesne River Crossing
Situation:
This is going to be a challenge, Michael Tinney thought.
​Tinney, Chief Engineer for Kilduff Underground Engineering of Salt Lake City, UT, was tasked with vibration monitoring at a remote construction site in Myton, UT. The installation of a new utility line running 874 feet under the Duchesne River involved shoring with driven sheet piles and hammer boring that would come within a few feet of an existing high-pressure natural gas line. Monitoring the potential impact to this gas line from sheet pile driving and hammer boring so close by was mission-critical to the project being able to move forward safely. "If we couldn't successfully monitor these vibrations, the project could grind to a halt," Tinney explained.
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While the need for vibration monitoring was obvious, how to do it wasn't. The location was too remote to have monitoring staff on-site at all times; access to power was a challenge; cell signal strength was poor; the gas line was below grade. Ideally, Tinney needed a compact device he could place directly on the pipe underground, that had a long battery life, flexible antenna options, and that could provide him and the project team 24/7 visibility of the data in their offices over 100 miles away.
"If we couldn't successfully monitor these vibrations, the project could grind to a halt."
Solution:
Inzwa's Veva III Vibration
Monitor & Cloud IIoT Platform
The Inzwa Veva III allows for flexible antenna solutions. Here an extended antenna was used to allow the device to be buried and still access the available cell service. An orange hazard container was placed atop to signal construction crews of its location.
Tinney chose Inzwa's Veva III vibration monitor and Cloud platform for this two-month project. Given its compact size and ability to auto-orient underground, he was able to place the Veva III directly on the gas line itself, ensuring the most accurate data possible. The device's flexible antenna option allowed him to attach a longer antenna to get the signal above grade. And, given the remote location's poor cell service, Inzwa worked with Tinney to reconfigure the device overnight to meet the challenging communication situation in Myton. "The Inzwa personnel were fantastic at diagnosing the problem, communicating the solution and hand-holding us to get the project started successfully," Tinney stated.
The project's monitoring parameters required that the device run continuously for the two-month installation. The Veva III's robust, fully-integrated battery was up to the task. "We could essentially just switch it on and walk away," Tinney said. Plus the Inzwa Cloud's dashboard gave him 24/7 visibility of all the data in real time, including battery life and cell signal strength, at his office and home in Salt Lake City, over two hours away. "The ability to transmit the data and monitor remotely is ideal for this kind of project," he concluded.
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The Inzwa Cloud platform made automated reporting fast and easy, too. "It took about an hour to get reporting set up," he said. "I had minimal input into the format of the reports," Tinney continued. "They were WAY better looking than any reports I had reviewed in the past. It was already pre-packaged and ready to go; I didn't really have to do anything, which was great."
"Inzwa was fantastic at diagnosing the problem, communicating the solution and hand-holding us to get the project started successfully."
Michael Tinney,
Chief Engineer, Kilduff Engineering
Vibration Monitoring Results
The Inzwa system continuously monitored the pipeline's health for two months during the critical shoring and initial hammer-boring phases of this project. The need for on-site visits were minimized, saving both time and expense (not to mention the hassle of repeated, five-hour round trips!) Once complete, Tinney had one more task: to retrieve the Veva III and send it to another Kilduff Engineering project in Colorado. "We have other vibration monitoring projects this is ideal for," he concluded.