Patent ID: 9605400
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: E02D

Claim:
1. A method of mounting one or more columns/piles in an upstanding position on a supporting surface formed by a lake, sea or river bed comprising the steps of: using a submersible drilling machine for mounting the one or more columns/piles to be inserted in the supporting surface, lowering the column/pile to be installed from a support vessel into contact with the supporting surface, remotely operating from the support vessel one or more drilling mechanisms by way of one or more flexible umbilicals, leaving the column/pile in situ in a bore formed after completion of a drilling operation, and following the drilling operation, recovering the drilling machine by the support vessel, wherein using lower/toe end of the column/pile as a non-retrievable drill such that upon rotation of the column/pile the bore is formed in the supporting surface into which a lower region of the column/pile is to be located, wherein the drilling machine comprises means for enabling the one or more drilling mechanisms of the drilling machine to be positionally indexed from a site of the drilling operation to another site for a subsequent drilling operation without moving the drilling machine, such that a predetermined pattern of column/piles can be established without moving the entire drilling machine, and wherein the one or more drilling mechanisms comprises a guide tube for vertically inserting a further column/pile to be installed.