Drill Tech was contracted to perform tunnel repair and maintenance work during a powerhouse tunnel outage that included cleaning out rock traps, servicing entry shafts/adits, and repairing rock trap steel/wood structures. The rock traps had accumulated decades of buildup including sands, rocks, sticks, and other debris. This material had to be excavated by hand and hauled several thousand feet to the nearest exit location from the tunnel. The tunnels were accessed via adit and vertical shaft locations where temporary services were set up to provide dewatering, power, lighting, and utilities to the tunnel.  

Concurrently with the tunnel work, Drill Tech’s APEX Rockfall Mitigation also performed rock scaling and fence installation on the access roads to the powerhouse, since Jaybird Canyon’s 1.2 mile, 2-lane switchback road faced the constant risk of rockfall that threatened access to the powerhouse. Drill Tech, via APEX, performed at 3 scaling locations and 2 fence locations. All areas were accessible only by rope teams and winch drilling equipment. The project implemented rockfall fences to meet project intent, with a hybrid approach achieving both the project geometric and technical goals.