The Service Supply Network Right under Your Feet
Underneath any modern community is a vast supply network of cables and pipes carrying gas, water, electrical and communication utilities, sewer lines and storm drains. Every year, this valuable infrastructure increases in size and complexity. Disturbing these lines can cause not only disruption to the services every household takes for granted but can result in a dangerous or life-threatening situation that costs you time and money.
Utility Locating Services
When new buried lines or cables must be added, upgraded or relocated, the traditional first step is to call a utility locate service to find out what existing services might be in conflict with your work. Unfortunately, utility company records are notoriously inaccurate or contain conflicting information. When shovels or backhoes are used to find the lines, these can easily damage existing pipes or cables, which slows down work and which require costly repair. In the worst case, hitting a gas or electric line can be fatal.
A Safer Way to Daylight Utilities
Exposing existing utility facilities is known as potholing or daylighting. Mechanical methods of daylighting might seem to be the most cost-efficient, straightforward way to confirm what is underground. However, realistically, they are risky as they place too much reliance on good luck. Modern daylighting services utilize hydro vacuum excavation techniques that are proven to be safer, more efficient and less hazardous.
How Do Vacuum Daylighting Services Work?
Vacuum excavation, hydro excavation, also known as “soft dig,” is a non-destructive alternative to exposing utility facilities. It has several distinct advantages over traditional methods of excavation with a shovel or backhoe:
- It is a precise system that minimizes the amount of material removed
- Since less backfill is required, there is less restoration effort
- High pressure water removes soil so that metal never touches buried lines
- Less mess is created since soil and water are conveyed to a debris tank
You’ve probably heard of both air and hydro excavation. The biggest differences between the two is hydro excavation is quicker and produces less airborne debris. The best daylighting services exclusively use hydro excavation for daylighting.
Daylighting Applications
Besides providing visual confirmation of existing buried utility facilities, daylighting has several other important applications:
- It increases the productivity of directional drilling services when making test holes
- It quickly locates pipe and cable crossings beneath roads, rail lines and other infrastructure
- It permits pinpoint installation of sacrificial anodes for water mains
- Subsurface utility engineering relies on daylighting for quick and accurate utility mapping
- It is an efficient method for digging holes for poles and pilings
- In the oil and gas industries, it is utilized for hydro trenching and tank cleanout
Finishing Your Job under Budget and on Time
Industrial hydro excavation companies ensure essential utility services are not interrupted. It helps your project get more done with less effort, in the shortest time and with the least risk to your workers and people living in the community where you work.
Our fleet of daylighting trucks employs the latest technology and can dig more than 1,000’ away from the closest vehicle access point. Give us a call today to book your equipment or request more information.
