Is Directional Drilling the Most Acceptable Solution?
Usually, laying an underground cable or pipe is straightforward. You can bring in excavating equipment and cut out a trench from point A to point B, put in the pipework and cover the trench with earth. If all of your past pipe-laying jobs have been simple like that, you may be confused when a pipe must go somewhere that the path is obstructed. Perhaps existing properties are blocking the route that you want to follow. Or maybe there is a natural obstruction, such as a hill. Alternatively, in between the starting and finishing points for the pipe, there may be a protected nature reserve that must be left alone.
Can you go around it?
Perhaps your first thought, when faced with a blocked route, is to see if you can find a path around the edge of the obstruction. If the obstruction doesn't impinge too much on your path, skirting around the edge of it might not add too much to the overall project costs. However, avoiding the obstacle in that way is often impractical without a substantial deviation. A more viable and widely used solution is directional drilling.
How does directional drilling work?
Directional drilling services can connect two points by drilling underground horizontally. While most drilling is done vertically into the ground, horizontal drilling can create a hole that will take a pipe or cable across any obstruction without disturbing the ground surface. While obstructions are the most common reason for bringing in directional drilling services, there can also be compelling ecological reasons for working with directional drilling services.
Directional drilling services protect the natural environment
Digging trenches to lay pipes is messy and disruptive to the surrounding area. Digging a trench will result in piles of earth along the length of the trench. There will be large earthmoving vehicles tearing up the ground and causing damage that could have long-term consequences. Any valuable wildlife habitat that is in the path of the trench will be lost. Once the trench has been refilled, there will still be an ugly scar that could take years to recover, especially if the pipeline construction destroyed mature plants. All of the damage to wildlife can be avoided by calling directional drilling services. Using directional drilling, there will only be a small hole at each end of the pipeline; everything in between will be safely left alone, allowing the natural ecosystem to thrive.