Vacuum Excavation Mitigates Risks, Prevents Costly Damages

Following the building boom many years ago came the need to lay down pipes and cable wires underground in what civil works contractors claimed as a move to protect such utilities from aboveground damage. They bury such utilities to protect against ‘human error’, weather elements and other occurrences that can come as damaging contact with the utilities. However, there has been reported much damage to underground facilities. Many miles of pipes and cables became vulnerable to damage as construction companies dig the earth. These utilities are then exposed to possible hazards which could result to multi-million damages.

To prevent damages to the utilities or hazards that could result from damaging them, construction industry leaders need to implement best practice policies with regards to excavation works. For this, they need to adopt safe excavation procedures, one of which is vacuum excavation, a non-destructive digging method. Vacuum excavation is fast becoming a preferred digging and trenching method in construction site excavation. Along with other non-destructive excavation and potholing methods, vacuum excavation is a recognised safe practice in all states.

The construction industry would like to see a hazard-proof excavation or utility location, which vacuum excavation makes possible especially in areas inaccessible to huge earthmoving equipment. In lieu of mechanical tools or equipment, a vacuum excavator truck is utilised to break up the ground or surface with pressurised water or air. With a vacuum hose, the excavator can pull out the dirt and debris and convey it to a storage tank which is mounted on the truck for later backfilling or disposal. The use of controlled and pressurised jets of water or air is indeed safer than backhoes, pole punchers and other equipment, and faster than shovels, augers and other hand-held tools to locate and expose any underground utility.

Vacuum excavation allows workers to work safely around water pipes, gas lines, electric cables, fibre optic lines and other utilities, uncovering them without striking and damaging them. On the economical aspects, this non-destructive digging method can help prevent primary consequences resulting from the strikes:

• Power outages
• Utility service interruption
• Disruption of essential services including hospitals and airports
• Gushing water
• Fire and explosion risks
• Business losses
• Traffic congestion

However, the secondary consequences from damaging underground utilities include:

• Death and injury – Workers expose themselves to potential injury or death when they strike dangerous utilities like gas pipes and electric cables.
• Criminal liability – Contractors could be facing charges for exposing their workers to hazards.
• Environmental pollution – This results from hitting gas lines and damaging sewerage systems.
• Financial liability – Utility service providers will seek damages from construction companies.
• Project delays – As contractors seek to answer to authorities and affected utility providers and pay compensation for affected workers, works get suspended temporarily.
• Financial trouble – Contractors need to pay for damages and compensate workers, not to mention experiencing greater losses over the delay of work.

Certain utilities are buried to prevent damages on them. Likewise, as we uncover them, we then expose them to potential damages. So as to avoid costly hazards and its consequences, contractors should look into non-destructive digging methods, one of which is vacuum excavation.

Are you in need of a non-destructivedigging contractor? Contact Yunz Contracting today for service. 

Why Civil Contractors Should Implement Vacuum Excavation

Issues surrounding excavation works at civil construction projects involve strikes, safety, time efficiency and the burden of the work itself. For this, contractors will need to adapt non-destructive digging methods if such things are the issues. In short, they need to practice vacuum excavation and get done with backhoe operation and manual digging. Why so?

Utilising Backhoes, Increasing the Problems

Construction workers typically operate backhoes to dig potholes, trenches and excavations, but if you are going to ask the civil contractors, using backhoes is not really their preferred method of digging and excavating. At times, it is too risky to operate it especially in small areas or locations with limited or no access to large equipment including backhoes and dump trucks.

Contractors want to ensure using the equipment will not strike any underground utilities. However, the power to control the equipment lies in the hands of the operator. The operator cannot operate the backhoes without a spotter who have to be present to inspect or observe the digging process. He communicates with the backhoe operator and signals the latter when a buried facility is sighted. But even with a spotter present, even the most skilled of backhoe operators can hit and damage the utility which they were trying to locate and to protect.

Manual Digging Is Tiresome and Time-consuming

If contractors cannot bring their excavators and other earth-moving vehicles to limited spaces, what they can do is to excavate the area by hand. This means they will have to dig manually using shovels or spades, pickaxes, hand augers, drills and hand tools. Manual hand excavation is advantageous in small areas.

Though safe, workers will still need to watch out as they can still strike any underground facilities such as electric cable and plastic or PVC water pipelines because they are using sharp tools. Moreover, this method requires a labour force that is adequate to work in a particular land area size as it rules out the use of large machines. If the area to be excavated is large, you will need a large workforce to excavate the area in a given time frame. This is also a very tiring and time-consuming work, and this could put your workers are risk of carpal tunnel syndrome – because workers cannot use machines.

Vacuum Excavation: Safe, Swift and Accurate

If contractors are going to rule out backhoes and manual digging in a particular excavation job, they can still explore another digging option, which is a non-destructive digging method to be precise. Why use conventional excavation methods any longer if there is a safe and time-efficient alternative?

Vacuum excavation provides contractors a non-destructive digging method for locating and exposing any underground facilities in the most efficient and safest manner. There are two methods of vacuum excavations: Air and hydro. Vacuum excavation entails the use of a truck-mounted vacuum excavator which generates high pressurised air or water to break up the surface and to collect the debris. This method gives you the option to adjust the pressure of the air and water when breaking up the surface.

One can say that vacuum excavation is a two-in-one function. The air or hydro vacuum excavator equipment does not only break up the ground but it also collects (sucks up) the debris as the excavator truck also has a storage tank that has enough storage capacity to store rock, soil and other spoils. You can also operate the excavator to backfill the potholes or trenches after the purposes of excavation have been accomplished.

This not only rules out the need for dump trucks and additional equipment but also personnel to perform and inspect the work. Even two people can excavate using vacuum excavation and complete a number of potholes or trenches in any given day.

A non-destructive digging method such as vacuum excavation would reduce the need of equipment and personnel. With this contractors can focus on quality digging results. Thus, excavation issues are eliminated.

For your non-destructive digging needs, please contact  YunzContracting today. Please visit our website   for more details.

How Vacum Excavation Benefits the Construction and Utility Firms

With recent economic and industrial developments allowing high rise and civil work construction projects to boom and urbanisation to expand further across the continent, stakeholders (from the public and private sectors) should pay attention to utilities because it is through these utilities that progress flows. Without gas, water, electricity and telecommunications, progress cannot take place because our society has already become totally dependent on them. With this, level 1 ASP civil contractors need to make sure these utilities are properly installed.

And we owe to technology that allows these utilities to be installed and maintained without much hassles. One such technology that builders can depend on is vacuum excavation (both the air and hydro vacuum types). In what ways is vacuum excavation essential to certain stakeholders and to the construction industry in general?

Non-Destructive Excavation for the Construction Industry

There is really much digging in the construction industry where workers dig trench not only to lay down the foundations of buildings and other edifices but also to install utility pipes and cables. It is already much of a trouble when builders operate large equipment in limited spaces and fragile areas. Moreover, it is also for the interest of the general public that construction workers do not use drills or jackhammers to disturb people living nearby.

Non-destructive digging in the form of vacuum excavation is indeed tailored to meet the construction industry’s demand for safe excavating work. Contractors have three aims for vacuum excavation:

• Contractors long to reduce energy costs of their equipment and devices.
• They also long to reduce the number of personnel needed for trenching and excavating jobs.
• They also need to increase work efficiency and reduce manpower hours.
• They also want to minimise back jobs and accidents resulting from their excavating works.

Benefits for the Utility Providers

 For the water utility providers, they will have no trouble finding the exact location of any buried leaking pipes. There will be no longer any need to excavate the whole area just to find and repair a simple piping issue. They can contract vacuum excavation services to pinpoint the location of a piping problem and trench to fix or else replace if the pipe needs replacing. No hassles in the part of your water company.

For the power utility firms and telecommunication companies, power posts are the thing of the past and it is no longer cool for the wires to block your view of the sky. Time will come society will have less to do with wires hovering above us as many wires and cables are now installed underground. You can now freely fly your kite without obstacles.

Benefits for Town/City Councils

For the town and city councils, it will be no trouble for them to install new drainage or sewerage systems in new neighbourhoods. They can contract vacuum excavation service providers to dig trenches and excavations so builders can construct new drains and sewers and even upgrade existing ones.

Who needs large earth-moving equipment when one can contract a firm to provide non-destructive excavation? Vacuum excavation can help utility companies shelter their cables and pipes safety and civil contractors to carry out digging works safely and efficiently. Progress needs to take place safe and hassle-free too.

For your non-destructive excavation needs, please contact Yunz Contracting today. Visit our website , So you can learn more of our services.

How Vacuum Excavation Ensures Good Digging Work Results

Vacuum excavation makes way for a non-destructive excavating and trenching process. Civil construction workers need not to be wary of their excavation works anymore or wonder if the area is safe for digging. The use of either air or hydro excavation can do both: To check the area of underground utilities and dig or excavate the area safety without damaging the buried utilities. Vacuum excavation has various applications in the building and construction industry.

Easily Accessible Excavation

In conventional digging methods, you will never fail to notice vehicles like the bulldozers, wheel tractor-scraper, excavators and diggers to excavate the earth and dump trucks to dispose the debris.  With equipment so huge, how can they access to other areas that are inaccessible for huge vehicles?

This is not a problem with vacuum excavation. A vacuum unit is a truck or trailer-mounted vehicle, smaller than a dump truck and has a debris tank with enough storage capacity. The vacuum pump trucks can have a water-powered machine (for hydro excavations) or one that generates highly pressured air (for air excavation).

With a vacuum excavation vehicle not as large as a dump truck or any earth-moving equipment, many areas, including the most pristine environment, can be easily accessible for excavation services.

Precise Work Ahead

Operating huge equipment at construction sites can be very dangerous indeed. Moreover, you cannot ensure an accurate work if you are at the handles while an assistant checks out the excavation. To ensure you are digging a hole with the precise width and depth, two heads are better than one indeed. If you want an accurate work result and no back job, you should consider vacuum excavation.

With vacuum excavation, there is no need to worry about the result of the digging work. You and an assistant can closely monitor the trenching job being done while you adjust the air or water pressure to break down and suction the debris.  This option will allow you to get the desired digging results.

Clean and Neat Work

If you are going to apply conventional excavation, disposing the debris won’t be easy. A dump truck has to be nearby or an area to stock the debris should be prepared beforehand. With an excavator, the area should be off limits at all.

The excavation truck will not be much of a hassle at all because the debris will be sucked up by the suctioning machine to the debris tank. For backfilling, it will not be a problem as the suctioning machine can backfill the excavation.

Safe

Vacuum excavation is safe because air and water cannot damage the utilities. You can even control the air or water pressure as you excavate. You would want to be careful with applying too much water pressure, though. No damages, no hazards but only a safe excavation process.

Applicable For Various Purposes

You can apply vacuum excavation for post holing, tunnelling, cleaning drainage and sewerage lines.

Non destructive excavation gives civil contractors an option to closely monitor their excavating work without making estimates.

If you think non destructive excavation can be very beneficial for the type of job you have in mind, please do not hesitate to contact Yunz Contracting today and visit our website to learn more about our service.