Horizontal Directional Drilling

Put it underground without digging up everything above it.

Trenchless installation for power, fibre, water, gas, ducts and utility infrastructure across Whanganui and the lower North Island.

The bore is not the whole job

The machine does not make the decisions.

Successful HDD work starts well before the drill head enters the ground.

The proposed alignment, existing services, entry and exit positions, product, tooling, drilling fluid, access and actual ground conditions all affect the result.

We plan the installation as a complete job, then bring the drilling, locating, hydro excavation and support equipment needed to carry it out.

A drilling machine does not automatically make someone a drilling contractor.

Typical applications

Less trench. Less disruption.

HDD is useful where opening the entire route would be expensive, disruptive, impractical or generally unpopular.

01

Road and driveway crossings

Install products beneath established surfaces while reducing the length of open excavation and reinstatement required.

02

Power and communications

Ducts and product routes for power, fibre and telecommunications infrastructure in urban and civil environments.

03

Water, gas and utilities

Trenchless installation support for underground utility products where alignment, clearances and bore control matter.

04

Established sites

Work beneath lawns, footpaths, landscaping and developed areas without turning the full route into an excavation.

05

Urban service shots

Compact set-ups for constrained sites where there is still enough room to complete the job safely and properly.

06

Longer installations

Staged and larger installations using the drill, tooling and support arrangement suited to the actual scope.

How we approach it

Plan it. Prove it. Drill it.

Not revolutionary. Still surprisingly effective.

1

Understand the scope

Product, diameter, route, length, programme, access and what the finished installation actually needs to achieve.

2

Review the site

Entry and exit positions, set-up space, traffic, surfaces, existing assets and obvious ways the paper plan may fail.

3

Locate and expose

Trace known services and pothole critical crossings so the bore is based on physical information, not optimism.

4

Select the method

Drill, tooling, bore path, reaming stages, fluids, product handling and the support equipment required.

5

Complete the installation

Drill, ream, install the product, deal with changing conditions and leave the job ready for its next stage.

Depth is not a strategy

Going deep is not the same as drilling well.

Sometimes the correct bore is deep. Diving under every known service because holding a controlled profile is harder is not the same thing.

A proper depth comes from the product, required cover, bend radius, entry and exit geometry, ground conditions, clearances, corridor requirements and future access. It is not chosen by pointing the head down until the crossing stops being inconvenient.

Every unnecessary metre below the surface becomes somebody else's excavation later. Tie-ins get deeper. Repairs need more spoil, wider batters or shoring. Maintenance takes longer, costs more and exposes people to a bigger hole.

Road corridors are shared space. The job is to install the asset safely, with the required separation, at a sensible risk-assessed depth that can still be located, connected to and maintained.

A deep bore can be correct. An unnecessarily deep bore is a confession.

  • Meet required cover without inventing maximum cover
  • Maintain deliberate separation at every crossing
  • Hold a controlled and traceable bore profile
  • Respect product bend radius and pullback limits
  • Consider future connections, repairs and maintenance
  • Record accurate depth and alignment information
  • Change the plan when conditions genuinely require it
  • Do not bury today's problem for tomorrow's crew

Depth is a design decision.

Not an escape route.
Ditch Witch JT922 directional drill

Directional drilling fleet

JT922 and JT1720 capability.

The fleet gives us options for compact urban work and more demanding installations rather than attempting to make one machine fit every site.

Machine selection depends on product size, bore length, ground, access, alignment and the support equipment needed to finish the work.

See our equipment

What helps us price it

Send the useful bits.

You do not need a flawless tender package. You do need enough information for us to understand what is being installed and where the obvious risk sits.

We would rather identify missing information early than price a fantasy.

  • Site address and contact person
  • Plans or marked-up aerial image
  • Proposed alignment
  • Product type and diameter
  • Approximate bore length
  • Entry and exit constraints
  • Known underground services
  • Required programme and access limits

If the quote assumes the ground, services, access and product will all behave perfectly, it is not a plan.

It is a wish with a dollar sign in front of it.

Holland Underground

Have a bore to price?

Send the location, plans, product details and approximate length. We will work through the rest.