Trenchless technology is a new innovative way to successfully remove old piping. It adopts a new style of excavation, avoiding the previous style that consists of moling, which involves a huge open excavation and has a number of negative impacts on the environment, contractors, and homeowners.
The benefits
Trenchless technology boasts many benefits, one being its fast, quick way of operating. This is due to the lack of land needed to reinstate after an excavation, because the excavation is only small it means contractors don’t have to spend days reinstating the land to its original state.
It is also extremely cost effective, and this is due to a number of resulting factors. Firstly, due to the small excavation this requires minimal workers on site, therefore saving contractors money on salaries. Additionally, the lack of open excavation means less resources and finances are used on reinstating the land and the overall project as less workers and machinery are needed for the pipe replacement.
Furthermore, keeping homeowners’ disruption to a minimum is also imperative. This is managed by using trenchless technology, so homeowners aren’t disturbed for a long amount of time due to the lack of moling and workers needed during a pipe replacement. Moling adopts the use of open excavation when pipe replacing. This way of pipe pulling can be particularly dangerous as it increases the risk of a utility strike if the mole operator is not experienced or hits another pipe in its way.
Minimising utility strike risk
Trenchless technology also rapidly reduces the risk of a utility strike when replacing pipes. This is due to the innovative idea of isolating just one old, decommissioned pipe and removing it via pipe pulling which simply attaches itself onto the old pipe via a towing head, shackle and ferrule and pulls through the new one. This therefore eliminates the risk of a strike by bursting another pipe, which is a high risk due to all the old, decommissioned pipe still accommodating most of the underground’s infrastructure.
By rapidly reducing utility strikes as a risk factor this in turn makes it a safer site for workers, as the risk of electrocution and explosions from utility strikes are significant. The underground infrastructure of utilities is large and complicated. Utility strikes are likely to occur when pipe replacement or servicing strikes another pipe, which can cause danger to workers, the public, homeowners, and the surrounding infrastructure.
If you would like more information on trenchless technology, please contact us.