hydro excavation

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 Hydro Excavation is the process of removing or moving soil with pressurized water. An air conveyance or vacuum is then used to transfer the soil or debris to a debris tank. This allows for a non-destructive and more accurate way to excavate soil and locate underground utilities. 

With their unmatched efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and lower risk of on-site injury or damage, hydrovac trucks are becoming more commonplace on construction sites everywhere. They require less equipment and can get the job done quicker than regular excavation methods or digging by hand.

Although hydrovac trucks are becoming more popular, there are some projects that they are used for that you may not consider at first. If you work in construction or city management, you’ve likely heard of hydrovac trucks and all of their advantages. However, if you are still unsure on whether they will work for you and the project you are working on, here are five uses of hydrovac trucks to help you understand how they can work for you.

This is one of the most common uses of hydrovac trucks on any construction site. Daylighting is the process of digging to uncover buried utility lines. These lines can then be marked so they can be avoided during future excavation, or they can be repaired if need be.

The advantages of using a hydrovac truck for utility daylighting is their efficiency and lowered risk of damage. Regular excavation methods have a higher chance of causing accidental strikes to vital lines that can result in costly repairs. Hydrovac uses a combination of pressurized water and a vacuum to blast away dirt and debris harmlessly. It’s also a much quicker process than manual digging or the use of a backhoe and dump truck.

Another advantage of hydrovac trucks is their ability to store the excavated soil for later backfill. Once the project is finished and the utility line is marked or repaired, the dirt that was vacuumed away can be easily backfilled on site from the holding tank on the hydrovac truck. This speeds to up the time taken to haul dirt back to the site. It also ensures that the backfilled soil is compacted and free of unwanted air pockets.

Traditional trenching methods are long, laborious processes that usually rely on manual digging for precision. Hydrovac trucks allow for this precision to dig smaller, thinner trenches, and they can do it faster than a shovel. Because the main component of hydrovac is pressurized water, hydrovac technicians can increase or decrease the amount of water to blast away larger and smaller amounts of dirt and debris.

Similar to trenching, hole digging requires precision, and previously relied on hand and shovel to be the most effective. Again, hydrovac can use the same amount of precision in a fraction of the time, and the soil that is carried away is right on hand to back fill if needed.

Along with pressurized water, the other component of hydrovac trucks is the vacuum that carries away dirt, sludge, and debris. Hydrovac can be used in a variety of places, including hard to reach, underground areas such as sewer and drainage lines.

Our hydro excavator we have is a Ditch Witch FX30. It has a 3000psi water blaster, a 800GAL spoils tank and 175 GAL water tank to run the water blaster. It is mounted on a Isuzu Forward 4x2 truck to allow access to restricted sites where the more lager units can not access.