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GSE rock on with Liebherr in cut off wall construction

Liebherr drilling and piling rig constructs a cut off wall in Bulgaria for a copper mine.

Bulgarian geotechnical engineering company, Geoservice Engineering, has deployed a Liebherr LRB 355.1 piling and drilling rig to help construct a 12km cut off wall in Chavdar, Bulgaria.

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Beginning construction last year, the cut off will surrounds a settling basin at a local copper mine to prevent water from escaping. Utilising the LRB 355.1 with 3-fold mixing rods for the job, Geoservice Engineering CTO, Anton Sariev, says the machine has proved itself especially useful in turning local material as construction material.

“In this particular case, the soil mixing process is superior to any other technique,” he said. “From an economic and ecological point of view, the use of local material as construction material definitely has positive effects.”

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With this application, no material for the cut-off wall has to be delivered or removed because existing soil material is mixed with the binder suspension. In addition to the time and cost savings, soil mixing has the advantage of being very quiet and low in vibration. The Bulgarian company mixes it with the piling and drilling rig to a depth of 20m and with a diameter of one metre.

The piling and drilling rig LRB 355.1 from Liebherr can be modularly equipped with one, two or three mixing rods as a longitudinal or transverse attachment. While the single or double versions are used for large mixing diameters and large areas, the triple version has the advantage of being very fast when – as in Chavdar – long cut-off walls have to be installed. As a passionate rock musician, Sariev says there’s similarities between playing instruments and operating large construction machinery.

“I can compare operating the LRB 355.1 to playing the guitar or drums − you have to work with your whole body,” he said. “Everything is perfectly harmonised, and you have to be 100 per cent committed to the cause. The ‘vibes’ are definitely similar.”

Following a year of construction, Geoservice Engineering has completed the project in Chavdar.

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