Hydrovac Excavation Work
By Sierrahydrovac_Admin Hydrovac Excavation • 0 Comments

How does Hydrovac Excavation Work?

The hydrovac excavation process is used to remove or move soil using pressurized water. An air vacuum is then used to transfer the debris and soil to the debris tank. This allows a more accurate and non-destructive way of excavating soil and locating the underground utilities. Hard soil is difficult to excavate using the traditional excavation methods. Using hydrovac excavation is a good way to get the job done easily.

How does Hydrovac Excavation Work?

Hydrovac excavation equipment consists of an air vacuum and a high-pressure water device. High-pressure water cuts through the soil and breaks it up. The vacuum is then used to lift up the slurry from the excavation area. The soil and debris are then transferred to a debris tank.

What are the Vacuum Choices Available?

A vacuum source is necessary for the hydrovac excavation equipment. There are two vacuum choices available – a positive displacement blower or a fan blower. A fan system can move air in large amounts, thus allowing faster excavations. Also, it is easy to operate and control. A fan system is light and less expensive than the positive displacement blower.

A displacement blower is capable of moving air at longer distances than the fan system. It allows excavations to be done at greater depths but at a slow rate. Thus, most hydrovac excavations are done using the fan system.

What Components are Essential for Hydrovac Excavation Equipment?

The hydrovac excavation equipment relies on two main components – high-pressure jets of water and a strong vacuum hose. The high-pressure water jets are used to loosen the material to be excavated. The vacuum hose sucks the loosened material and excess water into a huge holding tank.

Powerful hydrovac systems can excavate up to 60’ deep and at 600’ from the equipment. Thus, excavation work can be done even in those areas that do not have enough space.

Unlike other traditional excavation methods, hydrovac excavation trucks can be used to excavate almost any type of material at a construction site, including, hard packed clay, ice, sand, and gravel. If you have any excavations planned, choose the hydrovac excavation method as it is more convenient and can save you a lot of time and labor. You can get in touch with an experienced excavating contractor who will help you get your excavation job done easily and efficiently.

Non-destructive Excavation Process
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Hydrovac Excavation Is The Only Non-destructive Excavation Process

A non-destructive excavation process means digging, trenching, or installing that does not cause damage to underground utilities and infrastructure. These elements can get damaged due to the heavy impact of mechanical or manual methods of excavation (such as hydraulic excavation). The chances of underground pipe bursts, flooding, deep digging, etc. can be avoided using the hydro or air vacuum excavation methods.

As mentioned above, hydrovac excavation is an environment-friendly and a non-destructive excavation process. Also known as “vacuum excavation”, “potholing”, “hydro-digging”, “hydro-trenching” or “soft digging”, hydrovac excavation uses high-pressure water jets and a vacuum to move and loosen the soil particles. This method is ideal for excavating any type of ground including hard packed clay, sand, ice, and gravel. Various applications of hydrovac excavation are:

  • Digging
  • Buried pipe exposure
  • Trenching
  • Daylighting or potholing
  • Directional drilling
  • Laying underground pipes, sewer lines, and other utilities
  • Excavation for new construction
  • Excavation for landscaping
  • Debris removal and cleaning

Let us look at how this is the safer and non-destructive alternative to traditional excavation process:

General benefits of Hydrovac Excavation

  • Provides better damage and safety control as compared to traditional and physical methods.
  • Can easily excavate frozen ground.
  • Can easily overcome challenging soil conditions.
  • Avoids damaging the underlying pipes, cables, lines, and other underground utilities and elements. This saves a lot of additional repair costs.
  • Reduces traffic and congestion at the excavation site as the equipment and hydrovac trucks can be positioned at a distance.
  • Higher precision while working to deliver accurate results.
  • Uses less manpower than traditional methods of excavation.
  • With safety risks and fewer repairs, hydro excavation also reduces insurance and liability costs.
  • Both excavated area and materials are left clean and dry at the end of the process.
  • A faster method of excavation.

Environmentally Friendly benefits of Hydrovac Excavation

  • Accurate and precise working means lesser destruction of the area.
  • Reduces the risks or damages to trees, plants, and other vegetation on the site.
  • Minimizes dust, soil, rocks, etc. from being taken off during the excavation process and depositing or settling on other neighboring sites such as roads and gardens.
  • Since it does not involve any chemicals, this process is environment-friendly
  • Can safely remove underlying contaminated materials without causing any additional harm to the environment.
  • Ensures workers’ safety from machinery accidents and citizens’ safety from construction mishaps.

Due to high utility and many benefits, hydrovac is now the best method of excavation. So choose our Alberta hydrovac excavation services for your next digging and installation project. Get in touch with us today and our experts will understand your requirements. We provide the quickest 24-hour service, which means you won’t have to wait for long before we start working on your project.

Uses Hydrovac Trucks
By Sierrahydrovac_Admin Hydrovac Excavation • 0 Comments

Uses of Hydrovac Trucks

Hydrovac trucks contain high-pressure water and vacuum equipment which are used to dig, drill, and clean the selected area of land. These trucks have highly-pressurized water jets that loosen up the targeted land for excavation. They also have a high-powered vacuum hose that sucks water and loose materials into a huge holding tank. These trucks complete various excavation projects in an environment-friendly, non-destructive manner, thus making hydrovac the best excavation process. Hydrovac trucks are popular and largely used in various fields due to their precision and accurate working results. These trucks serve oil and gas, transport, power or electric, engineering utility providers, and other commercial industries. Below are some applications of hydrovac trucks in these industries.

Daylighting

Daylighting is the process of unearthing any kind of land covered with sand, gravel, concrete, or even ice with the help of water and vacuum in order to expose the underlying utilities to the daylight. Hydrovac trucks assist in locating underground utilities by digging or trenching the ground which is at a close proximity to the utilities. Daylighting is more efficient and precise than using other forms of utility locating.

Hole Digging

Hydrovac trucks help in digging posts as well as in piling holes of varying diameters and depths. These holes are dug for installing poles, signs, fences, signals, etc., and providing structural foundation support to them. The precision of pressurized water and vacuum equipment enable operators to drill the desired land accurately.

Trenching

Hydrovac trucks help in digging pits and trenches of different sizes and depths for exposing underlying utilities or installing new utilities. Slot trenches are smaller trenches that are typically excavated to investigate the underground conditions of a given area.

Debris Removal and Tank Cleanup

Hydrovac trucks can remove any type of material, wet or dry from trenches, pits, and underground tanks. These trucks remove soil, water, sludge, spills, debris, etc. from even the hard-to-reach underground places. Hydrovac trucks can perform cleanup tasks from a remote distance. This reduces the traffic at the site. These trucks are also useful for cleanup tasks after natural disasters.

Backfill Restoration

Hydrovac trucks can complete any excavation project by filling the trench or pit with soil and bringing the area back to its normal form. These trucks fill the holes, compact the soil and land, and make the subsurface free from unwanted air pockets.

These applications are generally carried out for the following reasons:

  1. Underground utility spotting

  2. Pipeline installation or repair

  3. Sacrificial anode installation

  4. Electric cable and gas line installation or repair

  5. Sewer line installation or repair

  6. Shoring walls and other structures

Hydrovac trucks have a number of benefits over other traditional forms of excavation and hence, they are used for a variety of applications and purposes. If you have any queries regarding the hydrovac excavation process, you can get in touch with our expert excavators.

Benefits Hydrovac Daylighting
By Sierrahydrovac_Admin Hydrovac Excavation • 0 Comments

Benefits of Hydrovac Daylighting

Daylighting is the process of unearthing and exposing the underground utilities and pipelines to the light of the day. Hydrovac daylighting is done to enhance project safety, increase productivity, and decrease overall project costs. Traditionally, the unearthing of underground lines was done by hand using traditional tools. However, now, air vacuum excavation techniques are used. The benefits of hydrovac daylighting are many. Some of them are mentioned below:

Increased Productivity

Hydrovac daylighting can increase the overall productivity of workers greatly. This enhanced productivity, in turn, helps reduce the total project expenses and timelines, while increasing the safety levels at the job site in general.

Improved Safety Standards

The safety standards that surround the hydrovac methods are created and incorporated by a team of safety experts. These safety standards are better than those created by a number of natural gas and oil producers. Because of their experience, the trained professionals possess the ability to safely work around every kind of utility that includes energized cables as well.

Innovative Technology

General field experience gives a rich source of ideas to the experts for enhancing the efficiency of hydrovac methods. Thus, the design implements various unique features and aspects to reach high-performance levels.

Versatility

Hydrovac methods can even unearth frozen grounds. A coiled heater is used to generate hot water that is necessary to liquefy the frozen soil, while protecting the key aspects from the elements of weather. The unique features of hydrovac daylighting offer very safe excavations all year round.

Powerful Techniques

Some areas have limited access. Hydrovac daylighting employs extra-long vacuum and water hoses to let workers work over 100 feet away from the equipment and excavate the ground level up to more than 9m deep. These hydrovac methods are created to work efficiently considering all weather conditions, soil conditions, even frozen grounds, tough clays, and rocky soils.

As there are so many benefits of hydrovac daylighting over the traditional methods of excavation, you should consider this method for your future excavation jobs. You can get in touch with hydrovac and excavating contractors to know more in detail about the different hydrovac methods of excavation.

hydrovac excavation
By Sierrahydrovac_Admin Hydrovac Excavation • 0 Comments

How is the Hydrovac Excavation Process Beneficial?

Hydrovac excavation is a method used for digging and moving soil. This process reduces a lot of risks and costs that come along with the traditional digging methods. To complete the hydrovac excavation system, an air vacuum along with highly pressurized water is used. As the water is highly pressurized, it can dig into the soil. The vacuum helps to transfer the soil to a debris tank.

There are numerous benefits of hydrovac excavation. Its applications include excavation, installation of poles, posts, plumbing pipes, sewers, etc. The hydrovac excavation process has become quite popular because of the benefits it offers in the industrial world.

Safety Benefits of Hydrovac Excavation

Hydrovac excavation is a way of digging and moving soil in a safe manner. It is a non-destructive and non-mechanic method. This process ensures that labor staff remains safe from accidents and the nearby area stays safe from any kind of construction mishaps. This process does not involve anything other than highly pressurized water and air vacuum. Additionally, the equipment and the operator can be far away from the area that has to be excavated.

Cost Benefits of Hydrovac Excavation

The process of hydrovac excavation reduces many unnecessary effects that are prevalent in the traditional excavation methods. Hydrovac proves to be the most accurate and safest method of excavation.  As the excavation tasks performed by this equipment are extremely detailed, damages to the surrounding utilities, pipes, and environment can be eliminated. For the installation of cables and pipes, pot holing, or for any excavation work, hydrovac excavation can move the soil accurately. Our professionals have years of experience in using  hydrovac equipment, which enables them to accurately get the job done without damaging the underground utilities and pipes.

Landscaping Benefits of Hydrovac Excavation

Hydrovac excavation is also commonly used for landscaping purposes. This process does the job delicately so that the soil in the surroundings is not disturbed. This lets your landscape have a strong foundation.

Traditional excavation methods like usage of backhoes and manual shovel digging are not very precise for digging the soil. Additionally, manual digging is very labor-intensive and consumes a lot of time. Use of any other heavy machinery can be unsafe due to the risks of damaging the surroundings. However, there are no such issues associated with the hydrovac excavation process. It is an eco-friendly, non-mechanical method of digging soil.

The hydrovac excavation process gets the job done quickly and accurately, demanding less effort from workers. So, if you have an excavation task at hand, get in touch with an excavating contractor who makes use of the hydrovac excavation process for digging and moving the soil.

Hydrovac Trucks
By Sierrahydrovac_Admin Hydrovac Excavation 0 Comments

Uses of Hydrovac Trucks in Maintaining Oil and Gas Pipeline

The safety and maintenance of the oil and gas pipeline industry is extremely crucial, as there are a large number of risks involved. These industries have underlying pipelines supplying oil and gas all over the region. These resources are worth a million of dollars. Any kind of pipeline mishap can lead to huge losses and destruction. To eliminate any kind of losses or a disaster, it is important to maintain the safety of these pipes. The first step towards maintaining and repairing oil and gas pipeline is to expose them to the daylight.

Pipeline excavation can be extremely dangerous if not done correctly using the best methods. Hydrovac is the simplest way to dig the land while keeping the pipes and other underground utilities safe. It is the most non-destructive way to dig, excavate, and loosen the ground surface. Hydrovac trucks use high-pressure water and vacuum which helps in trenching and digging with accuracy. Here are some uses of hydrovac trucks at an oil and gas industry.

Maintenance and Repair Excavations

For regular inspection and maintenance, it is important to dig the area carefully without causing any damage to pipes when exposing them. Using traditional methods of digging can accidentally damage pipes causing cracks and ruptures. Hydrovac trucks target a particular area that needs to be excavated and use high-pressure water jets to start the excavation process. This helps in excavating the land precisely, without causing any damage to the pipes. Precise and accurate excavation also help in repairing the faulty pipelines.

Laying New Pipes and Lines

Just before laying new pipelines, it is imperative to first expose the ones that already exist. Hydrovac trucks complete this task appropriately by causing least disruption to the ground. These trucks then create trenches to install new oil and gas pipelines. Not only this, these trucks also help in cleaning the pits and trenches so that you can lay new pipes and lines perfectly.

New Constructions and Installations

Hydrovac trucks can be used for creating trenches for the foundations of new constructions and installations. It often happens that newer plants or units are installed over the area which already has other gas and oil units. In both cases, it is important to excavate carefully. Hydrovac trucks can help in slot trenching and potholing for precise construction tasks.

Using hydrovac trucks, the entire process of digging, potholing, or simply cleaning a trench becomes timesaving and less expensive. While it could take days to accomplish an excavation task using the traditional equipment, the same task can be finished in a matter of hours with hydrovac trucks. Get in touch with us to select the best hydrovac trucks in Alberta.