Process for placing a piling in the ground, a drilling machine and an arrangement for implementing this process

A method for installing a piling of a predetermined target depth in the ground, particularly on the ocean floor comprising the steps of:

• (a) lowering a pipe having predetermined inner diameter and outer diameter into the ground together with a drilling machine set inside said pipe, said machine having rotatable cutters movable from a first position in which their transverse dimension is less than the inner diameter of the pipe to a second position in which their transverse dimension is greater than the outer diameter of the pipe;
• (b) holding said pipe fixed while independently lowering the drilling cutters while in said first position to a location below the pipe;
• (c) moving said cutters to said second position;
• (d) rotating said cutters to drill a hole of a predetermined incremental portion of said target depth, said hole having a diameter larger than the outer diameter of the pipe;
• (e) retracting said cutters to their first position and raising the drilling machine back within the pipe;
• (f) lowering the pipe and the drilling machine to the bottom of said hole to said incremental portion of said predetermined target depth;
• (g) repeating in sequence steps (b) through (f) until the total target depth is reached;
• (h) removing the drilling machine from said pipe to establish an annular space between the wall of the hole and the exterior surface of the pipe;
• and
• (i) filling said annular space with cement.