After about a month of working on the project, they eventually broke through to the other side after essentially trying several ways.Īccording to him, "everyone thinks it was the first river crossing ever done." When I looked at it that way, I believed it was plenty since we were always doing various things." Because it was a one-time occurrence, I thought it wouldn't happen again.Īs it turned out, word of Cherrington's successful river bridge spread quickly, and he was soon hired to do an even larger river crossing in Louisiana. At one time, Cherrington even sought the assistance of oil drilling techniques. If Cherrington could dig beneath the Pajaro River, PG&E would be happy to have a 4-inch gas pipe installed across the river.Īccording to Cherrington, it was considered "no man's land" at the time since no one had ever undertaken this task before. Remember that back then, there were no DigiTrak or Subsite locators on the market or even in development. PG&E was fascinated by Cherrington's innovative tactics and requested him to check into another minor issue they were having while he was in town. in Watsonville, Calif., in 1971, drilling for gas lines (PG&E). Cherrington was working for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. A new era in the history of drilling would begin with his next mission. The First HDD River CrossingĮven in Cherrington, road boring for the installation of essential utilities was the first step. They would excavate " potholes " at different points along the boring route they would excavate "potholes" to evaluate the drill head's angle and direction. Since the industry had not yet developed computerized tracking, Cherrington's team employed a technology he acquired from the Los Angeles gas company, which used a hand-held air drill. While working for utility firms in the Sacramento region, Cherrington's team was renowned as a top contractor for road digging. His words: "It looked a lot like many of the HDD devices you see now, but significantly downsized, incredibly light and skeleton-like. in 1964, Cherrington quit the utility company and constructed his drill rig, which allowed him to operate under various agreements with SMU under his contract (SMUD).Īs he described it, his drilling apparatus was built around a simple carriage that revolved around the drill pipe. To create his own business with Titan Contractors Inc. "Because of my diverse educational background, I felt at ease with welding, fabrication, and other mechanical-type tasks." He ended up going a long way beyond what he started with.Īccording to Cherrington, "my father was a general contractor and I had an incredibly wide foundation in civil construction.". When Cherrington learned about guided drilling, he was inspired to research the subject. While on the job, he saw another business installing a gas line nearby using a hand-held air drill. Who Invented Horizontal DrillingĪs a utility installer in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, Cherrington came up with the concept of horizontal directional drilling. This was the birth and infancy of the Horizontal Directional Drilling. This was way before Vermeer, Ditch Witch, DigiTrak or Subsite. It is, however, fair to begin with those who have come to be known as the "fathers" of horizontal directional drilling in the industry. No Wikipedia entry exists for Martin Cherrington describing his role in developing the initial equipment and technique that ultimately transformed a whole area of the building industry.
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