Frozen Ground Excavation

As a company operating out of Northern Alberta, working in the winter months is inevitable. Typically in the Edmonton area we can experience up to 5-6 months where there is significant frost in the ground. While this frost will often completely prevent traditional methods of excavating with machinery like excavators, the frozen ground is no match for the Hydrovac process. Our trucks are equipped with one million BTU boilers to heat the water to cut through frozen ground making the hydrovac process possible twelve months a year. In the winter months Hydrovacing becomes the ONLY method to expose under ground utilities as hand exposing with shovel is not possible. In using a Hydrovac we can not only penetrate the frozen ground efficiently, but we can do it safely and prevent any unwanted damage to utilities that we encounter in the frozen ground. In addition to the obvious fact that the ground is nearly rock hard, frost causes significant movement in the ground due to the heaving and expansion caused when water freezes and thaws. Often this movement itself will put tremendous strain on underground utilities and cause faults or failures. Water main breaks are a common example and occur relatively frequently during the frost season. The Hydrovac process will allow us to expose these lines, open up sufficient access for repair and often thaw and remove standing water that can quickly form once the line is compromised. Hydrovac can also be used for the thawing of frozen lines, hydrants, and many other circumstances where frost or frozen water are encountered. In fact, we have specialty devices such as a jet nozzle that will attach to our dig hose and self feed a jet of hot water or steam as it propels itself forward through a frozen blockage in a line.

The post Frozen Ground Excavation is courtesy of Renegade Group Blog