New drills for big dam build

This is what the valley looked like before the giant drills moved in Now the site is stripped to become a 'virtual quarry'.
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New drill rigs to provide 4.5 million m3 of rock for Turkey’s Gökçebel hydropower dam

Turkey’s Kolín Construction has taken delivery of a purpose-ordered DX800 drill rig, bringing its fleet of Sandvik rigs on Akköy hydropower project to five units – producing almost 4.5 million m³ of rock fill for the schemes Gökçebel dam.

Five drill rigs are producing almost 4.5 million m³ of rock fill for the Gökçebel dam on Turkey’s Akköy II hydropower (HEPP) project.

The HEPP scheme is located some 150 km from Trabzon and close to Gümüshane in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey.

It encompasses the Aladereçam regulator, the Gökçebel and Yasmaki dams and an electric power plant close to the Akköy 1 scheme also under construction, to produce a total of 890 GWh.

The Aladereçam regulator is being constructed at a ‘thalweg’ elevation of 1797 m directing water to the Gòkçebel dam lake through a 4.5 km long link tunnel with an inner diameter of 3.20 m.

The dam has been designed as a rock fill construction with a concrete coated front and a height of 140 m.

Served by the Gelaver stream in the Gumushane and Giresun Province borders, Gòkçebel lake will hold an estimated 65.07m m³.

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Yasmakli dam is a 100 m high concrete gravity dam on the Gavraz scheme in Giresun Province. The dam has a water holding capacity of 15.51 million cm³ to channel water into a 4km surge tank and tunnel.

Virtual quarry

In a ‘virtual’ quarry style application the five Sandvik drill rigs will be used to produce almost 4.5 million m³ of rock for the Gòkçebel dam plus further rock for access roads and eventually the concrete production equipment.

Kolín Construction is currently using two new machines to prepare access roads at an elevation of around 1860 m.

They will also be used, together with two rigs in drill and blast operations to provide infill material for the rock fill dam; producing 300-450 drill metres every 10 hour shift.

Featuring a base of 140 m x 340 m rising to 6 m X 250 m at 140 m height, the dam will require almost 4.5 million m³ of rock.