Absolutely, we want to look at the geological conditions. In a lot of cases, there’s going to be what we call a transition zone between one major geological deposition and another major geological deposition in which we had to draw a line in the array so that they could make a procurement. But we all know that line that separates zone A and B is a little bit gray. In those cases, we might propose a driven pile up into the line, but we find that the helical is required a little bit further south from that line.
So, utilizing different foundation types is often the way to go. If you have a different mix, the ability to balance your foundation types, and sometimes it’s hard to digest, may be an added cost of going out and buying an additional foundation element. However, overall, you’ll probably find that the cost is going to be less at the end of the construction.
Dan: During production, where if we’re working down a row and we start seeing low torques, we’ll stop. After two piles, we’ll go to the opposite end of the row and work towards it.
And then, as soon as we find that soft zone again, that’s where we’ll stop. Then we can infill that area with a larger helix or whatever it may be. So, we’re delineating during production as well. I treat every pile like a data point, as you mentioned like auto manufacturing.
We have total quality management with upper control limits and lower control. It’s more trying to narrow that rate down to the middle, so you have the least amount of waste. I treat it as a manufacturing line with a total quality management, a Six Sigma type of approach to it, which is hard to find in drilling. Most drillers just stick a pile in the ground. We take a different approach to it, for sure.