A. H. Beck Foundation was contracted to install an 11.5 foot diameter x 130 feet permanent casing for an access shaft at the Prosperity Mine near Petersburg.  Unstable soil conditions encountered at the site required the use of bentonite slurry to ensure a stable excavation during the drilling and casing placement process. Due to a high water table, A. H. Beck Foundation had to set and grout an 18 foot diameter surface casing before drilling a 14 foot diameter shaft down 130 feet in order for the 11.5 foot diameter finish casing to be set with the proper grout cover, as required by North American Drillers. The 11.5 foot permanent casing was set in one continuous piece and weighed over 177,000 pounds. A 500 horse power crane attachment type drilling unit manufactured by Beck was used to drill the full 14’ diameter excavation after the pilot / alignment shaft was dug with the same rig. 

A. H. Beck Foundation Company worked in conjunction with Obayashi Corporation on the City of Austin Raw Water Intake structure and Water Treatment Plant No. 4 to install a 11’-0” diameter 120’ deep vertical shaft for the raw water transmission riser pipe. The shaft was excavated entirely through the Edwards Limestone formation that contained numerous Dolomite layers. Due to the project specifications a very tight vertical tolerance had to be maintained.

A. H. Beck Foundation Company worked in conjunction with SAK/Quest on the City of Austin new wastewater tunnel extension project along the Colorado River. A. H. Beck installed three vertical shafts for tunnel access and manholes. The shafts were 14’-0” diameter up to 80’ deep shaft with corrugated liners grouted through the soft high water table soils in the overburden. The shafts were excavated entirely under bentonite slurry to support the soft alluvial soils found adjacent to the river.

A. H. Beck provided design/build services for construction of four vertical tunnel access shafts at 28 feet in diameter with depths up to 60 feet for the City of Austin’s new wastewater tunnel expansion project along the Colorado River. Secant pile compression ring shoring was installed along the peripheral of each shaft to ensure a watertight finished cell into the underlying bedrock. A. H. Beck utilized a hydraulic casing oscillator manufactured by Leffer to advance and retrieve segmental double wall temporary steel casing through the water bearing soils.

A. H. Beck Foundation Company assisted North American Shaft Drillers on the White County Coal Corporation’s Pattiki II Mine Shaft, which is a new ventilation shaft for the Pattiki Mine. A. H. Beck installed steel casing, 11.5’ x 150’ in a shaft excavated entirely with 5000 bbls of bentonite slurry. All of the slurry was mixed and processed onsite. Two corrugated liners, 18’ x 10’ and 15’ x 30’, were also set and grouted. The primary shaft was drilled through sandy clays, sand, silts, sand and gravel, to reach shale bedrock.

The super conducting super collider was a Department of Energy project to build a giant underground atom smasher. To accomplish this, they had to construct a 30 foot diameter underground tunnel 64 miles long. The tunnel was shaped like an oval and would house a large electromagnetic race track that would control the atoms. A. H. Beck was contracted to install access, alignment and vent shafts to facilitate the tunnel excavation. These access shafts varied from 18 to 30 feet in diameter to depths of 285 feet.