BWMS Plays A Role in Landmark Tunneling Project...

IRWIN, Pa., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire

Leading industrial communications provider WHOLESALE MINE SUPPLY and its division, HC Global, are working on a joint venture with Gomez Tunneling and world tunneling expert Rick Gomez to provide two-way radio communications to the tunneling project that will extend Pittsburgh's "T" rail line under the Allegheny River and connect the city's downtown region with Heinz Field and PNC Park.

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CUSA, December 2008/Wholesale/Industry Focus

WMS takes on tunneling project Industry communications supplier Wholesale Mine Supply L.P. has taken its underground mining expertise to another subsurface environment that carries many similarities to coal operations – tunneling.
The company, along with its partner SMC-Varis Becker has been working on a VHF leaky feeder system along with Ethernet inside the North Shore Connector tunnel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a landmark multi-million dollar rail transport project designed to slink beneath the water and across the city’s Allegheny River.
“[We] set up four base stations in a trailer on surface with a surface coverage system in place and this allowed the personnel to talk from above ground to under and vice-versa,” wholesale president Bill Hensler noted of the Pennsylvania project.
“The leaky feeder system allowed all workers to communicate no matter where they were: tunnel, surface, or TBM,” he continued, adding that the Ethernet over leaky feeder connection was included so that the tunnel’s guidance control system could be monitored and controlled from Germany without extra cable line and with all data exchanged over one line.

Hensler noted that Alan Quinn led the project for WMS, and with minimal obstacles are calling the team’s performance a huge success. The project, according to the companies, has now been up and running for over a year and the current section will be done within the next six months.
The connector, according to Hensler, possessed many parallels to the underground mining environment, the needs of its crews and management, and the interaction between the communications system and the underground design.

“What makes this environment so similar is the fact that personnel are underground and need to communicate,” he said. “Everything that goes on in a mine goes on in a tunnel except it is a much cleaner environment,” adding that the only truly easier feature is that tunnel layouts are typically straighter.
Looking ahead, WMS said 2009 holds much more opportunity and growth – in fact, Hensler is referring to the coming 12 months as “the year of tracking and tagging” in underground mining. Much of that optimism resulted from a successful run at MINExpo 2008 in Vegas in September, which left the company with many jobs to quote out for customers, he said.

In fact, he looked to his distributor network including Carroll Engineering, Delta Electric, Industrial Mine Supply and Wallace Electric as key to this opportunity – primary because every company spends time at mines on a daily basis and has a comprehensive knowledge of the underground environment. The designing and installing it has done over the last decade has been completely turnkey, with all of its work done –hand-in-hand with customers. While Hensler declined to elaborate on the plans at the research and design table with its partner companies, he did say it would be joining forces with SMC Becker-Varis and Venture Design Services, designer of Mine Tracer tagging, along with its in-house engineering team to focus on improving technology for the sector.