Yonderberry Oil and Petroleum Supply Jetty

Pile driving - December 2018

Once they have been placed in position, the legs (piles) of the new jetty are hammered into the river bed until they reach rock. This hammering process is achieved by a pile driver. These photos show the early stages of pile driving for the new terminal at the end on the jetty. The pile driver is lifted onto the end of the pipe in a vertical position whereupon hydraulics are used to raise and lower the 'hammer', knocking the pile further and further into the mud.

The third and fourth photos show a second, more powerful blue pile driver being lifted into position. (The vertical black tubes are the legs of the platform.)

Above: Just to the right of the four platform legs is a rusty blue sleeve that is mounted on a blue platform. The pile driver is inserted into this sleeve and the whole assembly then becomes the massive hammer to drive the piles deep into the river bed. The sleeve allows engineers to keep the vertical alignment precise and also to measure the depths reached by the pile.

A number of the wide, rusty sleeves are brought on site by barge. These must be lifted into position by the crane and slipped over the top of the pile so that the pile is completely covered by the sleeve. The pile driver then fits inside the sleeve and is pushed inside until it makes contact with the top of the pile.