Roberts Environmental Drilling, Inc.

Vacuum Excavation

Roberts Environmental Drilling, Inc. (REDI) is pleased to announce that we are now providing a new service to our environmental and geotechnical clients, as well as to industrial owners and utility contractors.

This new service is known as VACUUM EXCAVATION and is commonly called "potholing" or "Air Knife" to locate underground utilities or to vacuum excavate a hole to 5 or 6 feet deep prior to drilling or geoprobing. This is generally used (and needed) in areas having several underground utilities that can be difficult to precisely locate. In fact, some of the larger oil companies are requiring that vacuum excavation (Air Knife) will be performed on their sites prior to any drilling or geoprobe holes being advanced, for obvious safety reasons.

Why vacuum excavation rather than hand augering?

Near miss - Air-knifed hole located an unknown 1-inch electrical conduit, next to a previous 2-inch probe hole.

There are three answers...safety, efficiency and safety! During hand augering activities, it is vey difficult to tell whether you have encountered a rock, rubble or a buried utility. And sometimes, by the time you know what you have hit, it is too late and the damage has already been done to a fiberglass or PVC pipe or even to the sheath of an electric or fiber-optic cable! So, how safe is hand augering? We think, not very safe at all and generally not very efficient either.

How does Vacuum Excavation work?

Vacuum excavation (also called "soft" excavation) is performed by using a high velocity air lance to inject the air stream into the pores and fissures of the soil which then blows the soil particles apart! A powerful vacuum hose follows the air lance and vacuums up the soil particles, cleans out the hole for visual inspection and exact locating. In very hard clays, the efficiency of the air lance is decreased. We therefore have a high-pressure water injection system on board as a back-up to cut through the stiff clays. All of the spoils are vacuumed and are deposited into a holding tank. The spoils can then be used for backfilling or can be disposed of or staged on site.

Does this sound like something you could use on one or more of your projects? If so, give Charley or Tim a call for a price quote. And remember, safety doesn't cost...it pays!