Which Vendor is the Best Option for Trenching Services in St. Paul and Lloydminster?
Excavating, daylighting, and trenching can be dangerous when the team working on a project is unaware of what lies beneath them. The heavy machinery or hand tools can accidentally damage the utilities, thereby causing a big loss in time and money. The solution to the problem is hydrovacing, which is the safest and most efficient method of digging any surface in Alberta. The crew works in the height of winter too, with a wand that can cut through soft concrete and permafrost using water heated by a one million BTU boiler on the hydrovac truck.
Expertise in slot trenches
Trenching services in St. Paul and Lloydminster are required for installing pipes, cables, signs, posts, and other utilities below the surface. It is also commonly used for congested underground facilities, soil contamination sampling, viewing windows for directional drilling, or due to regulations/ policies. When creating slot trenches, hydrovacing is very efficient, and there is no clean-up necessary after their work is complete. All the displaced soil and rocks are in the truck’s debris tank for disposal at a designated location. The water used by them for permafrost is close to boiling point and effective at hydrovacing. The staff is always alert and cautious to ensure any lines underground that are not visible are not unknowingly damaged by the force of the water from the wand.
Compared to hydrovacing, older methods for trenching services can be like a bull in a china shop! Most of the trenching services offered by hydrovac companies are for slot trenching, which are narrow and deep excavations. The slots are made with high pressure ‘hot’ water sprayed by a wand, if it’s in the winter. As the soil, ice, and rocks are turned to a slurry, a dig tub and massive suction hose vacuums everything into the debris tank of the crew’s truck. It is very labor-intensive to create similar slot trenches manually with hand tools, and a lot of soil is unnecessarily displaced.
Exercising caution and increasing efficiency
During any trenching service operation in St. Paul or Lloydminster, there are two key people, a hydrovac operator and a swamper. Between the both of them, the pressure of the water and vacuum are adjusted to ensure nothing underground is damaged by the force of the spray from the wand. These functions and some others are controlled by the swamper’s wireless remote control, which sends instructions to the hydrovac truck parked nearby. If something is discovered underground during the hydrovacing, the pressure of the water sprayed from the wand by the operator can be adjusted to avoid damage but continues to clear away the debris and create a slot trench.
The top hydrovac vendor for trenching services has been operating since 2011 and has undertaken an array of projects in Alberta’s cities like Bonnyville, St. Paul, Lloydminster, Cold Lake, and more. Their crew works 24 hours in shifts and receives extensive training to ensure they are safe and competent at daylighting, culvert clean-outs, frozen culvert thawing, pipeline break clean-ups, and more. It typically takes them twenty minutes to set-up at a site for hydrovacing, and their crew consisting of locals from Alberta share their views on the work ahead to ensure optimal results.
