Core Drilling Procedure

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTROCUCTION.............................................................................................1
1.1 General information...................................................................................1
1.2 General Geology of the area.....................................................................1
1.3 Site Geology..............................................................................................2
2 DRILLING........................................................................................................5
2.1 Drilling method and operation...................................................................5
2.2 Ground Water Monitoring..........................................................................6
TABLES
Table 1: Summary of geotechnical layers

Table 2: Summary of Boreholes
Table 3: Ground water level records
ANNEXES
Annex 1: Borehole logs and descriptions

Annex 2: Core Box Photographs
Addis Ababa Ring Road Phase III, Tinishu Akaki Viaduct
Factual Geotechnical Core Drilling Report February 2008
1 INTROCUCTION
1.1 General information
Gondwana Engineering Plc. has made a sub - contract agreement with CRBC
Addis Engineering on 29, January 2008 to carry out foundation investigation
through rotary core drilling for Tinishu Akaki Viaduct (Addis Ababa Ring Road
Phase III project). Based on the contract agreement, the drilling was performed
from January 29 up to February 08 2008
The drilling Site is located in Gulele sub city at about 1 km NE of Rufael Church
The drilling activity was commenced on 29 th of January and completed on 8 th of

February 2008. It was conducted by a crew consisting of a Geologist, a chief
driller, assistant drillers and a mechanic.
The drilling was carried out by a brand new, France made Crawler Self-driven
remote controlled rotary core drilling rig (APAFOR 550). Three boreholes were
drilled to depths of 38.70 m (BH-LHS), 24.70 m (BH-RHS) and 10 m (BH3-P1).
The locations of the boreholes were specified by the client. The positions of the
boreholes have been recorded by a hand held Garmin map-76 GPS.
Accordingly, this report presents the factual data gathered during the execution
of the drilling work at each borehole locations.
1.2 General Geology of the area

Addis Ababa is located along the western margin of the Rift valley that consists
of different volcanic rocks ranging from basic to acidic in composition.
The northern part, the Entoto mountain chains are composed of rhyolite and
trachyte that are called the Entoto silcic of the Addis Ababa area. The prominent
volcanic mountains in the south, southwest and southeastern parts of Addis
Ababa are mainly made up of trachyte and Ignimbrite. The volcanic activity that
gave rise to these hills is related to the last stage of volcanism and it is assumed
to be the source of ignimbrite, tuff and trachy basalts of the Addis Ababa volcanic
hills. The wide area of the project surroundings is predominantly covered by
basalt boulders with light brown silty clay soil (Photo Below).
Gondwana Engineering Plc. Page 1 of 6

The surrounding of the drilling site
1.3 Site Geology

The data obtained from two boreholes, BH-LHS and BH-RHS, indicates that the
top part is covered by imported fill material which consists of light brown Silty
CLAY soil mixed with basaltic boulders and gravels underlain by alternating
layers of basalt boulders and soil. The underlying formation is BASALT rock
which is intensively weathered towards the top and the intensity of weathering
gradually decreases with depth. This Basalt can be further divided into 7 units
particularly in borehole BH-LHS based on the intensity of weathering and
fracturing. Borehole BH3-P1 is drilled in the excavated part of P1 near the pier
footings and composed of dark gray, fresh to slightly weathered BASALT overlain
by cement concrete and fill material. The following Table (Table-1) summarizes
the drilling site ground according to their geotechnical properties. The cross
section between BH-LHS and BH-RHS is also presented overleaf.

Table 1: Summary of geotechnical layers
Depth of Occurrence in m.
Layer No. Formation type
BH - LHS BH - RHS
Imported fill material (Light
1 brown Silty ClAY with Boulders 0.00 – 5.30 0.00 – 5.00
and Gravels
Alternating dark gray Basalt
Boulders and Gravels with soil.
The soil part is washed out by
2 5.30 – 14.20 5.00 – 13.50
circulating water and only the
boulders and gravels are
recovered as core
Reddish brown and light brown,
3 completely to highly weathered 14.20 – 16.00 13.50 – 17.50
and closely jointed BASALT.
Dark gray and light brown, highly
4 to moderately weathered, closely 16.00 – 22.40 17.50 – 22.45
to very closely jointed BASALT.
Dark gray, fresh to slightly
5 weathered, very closely jointed 22.40 – 23.00 22.45 – 23.00
BASALT.
Dark gray and light gray, highly
to moderately weathered, very
6 closely to moderately jointed 23.00 – 25.00 23.00 – 24.70
BASALT. Highly fractured
towards the bottom.
Light brown and reddish brown,
completely to highly weathered,
7 25.00 – 31.00 -
closely to moderately jointed
BASALT.
Dark gray and light gray, highly
to moderately weathered, very
8 closely to closely jointed 31.00 – 36.00 -
BASALT. Highly fractured
towards the top.
Dark gray, fine grained, fresh to
9 slightly weathered, very closely 36.00 – 38.70 -
to moderately jointed BASALT.
Formation type in BH3-P1
1 Imported fill material 0.00 – 1.55
2 Cement concrete 1.55 – 2.00
Dark gray, fresh to slightly
3 weathered, moderately to widely 2.00 – 10.00
jointed BASALT.

Figure 1: Cross Section between BH-LHS and BH-RHS

2 DRILLING
2.1 Drilling method and operation.

The drilling was carried out by a brand new, France made Crawler Self-driven
remote controlled rotary core drilling rig (APAFOR 550) with top head drive,
equipped with HQ (97mm outer & 64mm inner diameters) and NQ (76mm outer
& 47mm inner diameters) sizes single and double core barrels fitted with carbide
and diamond bits. Water pump, Pumping hose, rods, and a wide range of heavy
duty tools were used.
Location of the boreholes of the drilling site and summary of the drilling details
are presented in Table-2 below.
Table 2: Summary of Boreholes

BH.ID Elevation, Easting, (m) Northing, (m) Depth drilled (m)
(m)
BH-LHS 2606.105 0470109 1001787 38.70
BH-RHS 2606.123 0470117 1001795 24.70
BH3-P1 2604.647 0470142 1001765 10.00
Materials recovered from the boreholes were placed in core boxes, labeled and
logged according to their depths of recovery. Finally, each core box was
photographed with a digital camera (Annex- 2), temporarily stored in safe place
and at the end handed over to the client.
The rock recoveries are described in terms of the following parameters for each
run.
1. Total Core Recovery (TCR): – This is the ratio of total solid cores
recovered to the drilled depth in percent. 100% core is recovered from
BH3-P1 while in BH-LHS and BH-RHS the TCR varies from 30 to 100%.
2. Rock Quality Designation (RQD) – This is the ratio of sum of solid cores
with length greater than 10cm. to the total solid core length in percent. In
BH-LHS and BH-RHS, RQD value ranges from 0 to 95% while in BH3-P1,
RQD ranges from 21 to 95%. RQD of over 70 to 75% indicates high
quality rock mass.
3. Average Fracture Spacing (AFS) – This is the ratio of the total solid core
length to the total number of fractures. AFS mostly varies from 4 to 10cm
in BH-LHS and BH-RHS, and 7 to 30cm in BH3 –P1.
The borehole descriptions and logs are attached as Annex - 1 to this factual
report.

2.2 Ground Water Monitoring
The ground water level in each borehole was monitored using a deeper before
resuming every day drilling. Ground water levels, date, time and observed depths
are presented in Table-3 below. Presence of drilling water in boreholes,
particularly cased ones, is often misleading with the level of the actual ground
water. Ground water level measurements will only be reliable if measured for a
reasonable period of times after completion through the use of piezometers.
Table 3: Ground water level records

BH. ID Date Time BH Depth (m) Water level (m)
Jan 30, 2008 8:00 A.M. 5.55 5.10
Jan 31, 2008 7:45 A.M. 10.00 7.30
Jan 31, 2008 1:50 PM 14.10 7.80
Feb 01, 2008 7:45 AM 19.00 9.55
BH - LHS
Feb 01, 2008 1:45 AM 27.10 3.40
Feb 02, 2008 8:00 AM 32.10 9.30
Feb 02, 2008 1:30 PM 36.00 3.10
Feb 04, 2008 8:15 AM 37.65 11.15
Feb 05, 2008 8:15 A.M. 7.50 7.40
Feb 06, 2008 8:00 A.M. 10.70 7.60
BH - RHS
Feb 07, 2008 8:00 A.M. 14.00 10.70
Feb 07, 2008 2:10 PM 19.20 6.50
Feb 08, 2008 8:30 AM 24.70 9.90
BH3 – P1 Feb 09, 2008 8:00 AM 6.00 0.00

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.1 General information...................................................................................1

1.2 General Geology of the area.....................................................................1

1.3 Site Geology..............................................................................................2

2.1 Drilling method and operation...................................................................5

2.2 Ground Water Monitoring..........................................................................6

Table 1: Summary of geotechnical layers

Annex 1: Borehole logs and descriptions

1.1 General information

The drilling activity was commenced on 29 th of January and completed on 8 th of

1.2 General Geology of the area

Gondwana Engineering Plc. Page 1 of 6

The surrounding of the drilling site

1.3 Site Geology

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Gondwana Engineering Plc. Page 3 of 6

Gondwana Engineering Plc. Page 4 of 6

2.1 Drilling method and operation.

Table 2: Summary of Boreholes

Gondwana Engineering Plc. Page 5 of 6

Table 3: Ground water level records

Gondwana Engineering Plc. Page 6 of 6

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