In its simplest terms, excavation refers to the removal of rock or soil from a site, and it is an essential aspect of building, construction, and civil works. It is performed to create a hole, cavity, or open face. There are many different methods of excavation, from land clearing to compacting, site cuts, and bulk excavations. Wherever underground utilities or other buried objects may be present within an excavation zone, hydro vacuum excavation processes must be used.
What is Hydro-Vacuum Excavation?
Hydro-Vacuum Excavation or Non-Destructive Digging is considered the safest available excavation method where there are potentially buried utilities. It combines the use of high-pressure water with an air vacuum to remove unwanted dirt, mud, slurry, and other materials from around underground utilities.
Vacuum excavation trucks are used for this process. They are fitted with:
- A high-pressure water lance
- Vacuum suction
- Vehicle fans
- Waste storage chamber
The soil is broken up with high-pressure water and dispersed, then sucked into the storage chamber of the truck for disposal at a later time.
When is Hydro Vacuum Excavation Used?
This excavation method is used most often to excavate ground materials where traditional excavation methods are deemed too risky. This includes areas with a high density of utility lines; for example electrical cables, internet cabling, plumbing, etc.
Hydro vacuum excavation processes enable the safe exposure of underground utilities by clearing and removing ground material from around them, with no risk to the utilities. It also elicits the lowest environmental impact compared with mechanical excavation.
In many cases, hydro vacuum excavation is performed to identify the actual position and type of utilities in a site, verifying their size and depth, and exposing them to later enable safer mechanical excavation of the overall site.
Applications of hydro vacuum excavation include:
- Safely exposing utilities, cables, and pipes before mechanical excavation
- Trench excavation
- Excavating footing holes in areas of high-density underground utilities
- Silt removal from drains, pits, conduits and culverts
- Confined area excavation
- Safe tree remediation
- Removal of groundwater from footing (or other) excavation
Vacuum trucks effectively remove ground materials from around buried pipelines and cable networks; they can also be used in the emergency repair of these networks, and are valuable resources for use in confined spaces, deep excavations, sewer clearance, basement work, rail track maintenance, environmental maintenance, tree root clearance, and cleaning blocked roadside gutters and gullies.
Why Work with iFind Pipes ‘N’ Cables?
We are the leading provider of hydro vacuum excavation in the Northern Territory. We work with project designers, architects, site owners, utility providers, engineers, and contractors to mitigate the risks associated with buried utilities before mechanical digging, drilling, or excavating occurs.
We use the most modern technology and equipment to solve your underground locating issues and we help reduce project delays, construction costs, workplace hazards, and environmental impacts for your project. This includes using Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Wand Devices to safely, accurately locate subsurface utilities or objects.
We can help locate underground:
- Sewer/stormwater pipes
- PVC/poly pipes
- Concrete pipes
- Metallic pipes
- Electrical cables
- Copper cable telephone lines
- Optic fibre
- Coaxial cables
- Control cables
- Empty conduits
- Void location/detection
- Air conditioning pipes/ducts
- Fuel/oil/gas lines
- Tree root examinations
- Road/rail bed investigation
- Landfill mapping
- Location of underground storage tanks
We have a large fleet of Vermeer hydro vacuum excavator trucks which vary in capacity from 4,500L to 11,500L.
We can also assist you with leak detection and concrete scanning.
Contact Us Now
For professional, expert hydro vacuum excavation in Darwin, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine, and all NT surrounding areas, contact iFind Pipes ‘N’ Cables today. With more than a quarter of a century in this industry, we are the preferred expert provider for the largest construction companies in the Northern Territory.
Regardless of the scale of your construction, infrastructure, or maintenance project, we are here to deliver the solutions you seek for complex situations.
Our four-stage process is fast, clean, and environmentally conscious:
- Locate underground utilities
- Loosen the soil with water
- Loosen and extract surface material with a vacuum
- Store the material in containment tanks for transportation
All of our work is undertaken in compliance with AS5488-2013 “Classification of Subsurface Utility Information”.
Learn more about our hydro vacuum excavation service here.
Call us now on 0419 612 476 or email [email protected]
You may, alternatively, request a service via our online contact form.
