Big Stan

Big Stan is a vehicle-mounted drill rig built in 1986 by Anderson Drilling. The rig has been used on a number of construction projects in which conventional, smaller drilling rigs were unable to be used, particularly when projects call for drilling into hard soil. Notably, Big Stan was used in the construction of the First National Bank Tower in Omaha, the Benicia-Martinez bridge near San Francisco, and on expansions to the I-15/215 Beltway in Las Vegas. The drill rig was featured on Discovery Channel’s show “Monster Machines” in 2007. Big Stan features a two-piece design, significantly lowering the time and manpower needed to assemble it compared to contemporary rigs. Big Stan employs a screw conveyor capable of exerting of torque and of downward force to a maximum depth of . Its drill bit is capable of moving of soil per rotation and its drill bucket is able to move up to of soil per rotation. The rig has been estimated as one of, if not the largest, vehicle-mounted drilling rigs in the world. History Big Stan was built in 1986 by Anderson Drilling (Now part of Keller Group PLC) in Lakeside, California. The machine cost $1.5 million to construct and was named after the company president at the time, Stan Anderson, who was given a similar nickname due to his height of 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m). The rig was originally built to meet the demand for a more powerful mobile drilling rig, specifically a demand for rigs capable of boring up to deep. At the time, Big Stan was claimed to be the largest portable drill rig in the United States, with some estimates placing it as the largest vehicle-mounted drill rig in the world. From May to June 1999, Big Stan was used to drill the caissons for the First National Bank Tower in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2004, while working on an expansion to the Benicia-Martinez bridge near San Francisco, Big Stan was filmed by Discovery Channel’s Canadian outlet for the show “Monster Machines”. The episode aired in 2007. In June 2007, Big Stan was used in the construction of the Pacific Street Bridge, in Oceanside, California. Big Stan was selected for its ability to achieve depths of ; conventional rigs were not capable of tunneling deep enough into the soft riverbed soil to earthquake proof the structure. That same year, Big Stan was used for construction work on the Upper Northwest Interceptor sewage system. This project involved Big Stan drilling 41 vertical shafts, to in diameter, and to in depth.