Our Mechanical Division was urgently needed or asked to assist on site in preventing a piling machine from sinking into soft sand at the Sappi Piling Crawler Plant. On arriving at the site, it was found that a 35-ton crane had been hooked to the boom to try and keep it from tipping. Our team helped secure the boom, rigged the bottom section off which was causing the problem. In order to stabilize the piling machine, they then drove the machine forward whilst still connected to the crane and then lowered the boom to the ground. The team admitted the operation was nerve-wracking, particularly when the machine tilted off the ground, leaving only one wheel of the track touching the surface.