Remember what life was like without an automatic garage door opener? Imagine having to wash and dry your dirty dinner dishes by hand because the dishwashing machine hadn't been invented! How about the copying machine at work. . . or your personal computer? For utility professionals, the modern vacuum excavator has this same ability to become an indispensable part of their daily lives.

A vacuum excavator revolutionizes the way in which buried utilities are exposed, and it does so in such a way that it can easily become a utility contractor's best friend, able to save him money by automating the potholing process, while at the same time reducing his risks of on-the-job injuries and utility accidents.

How does it work? Very simply, a vacuum excavator is a machine designed to dig a hole in the ground. . . but to do so in such a way as to prevent damaging anything buried in the ground -- like utilities! How does it do this? By utilizing a fluid, in most cases high pressure air, but in difficult soil conditions high pressure water, to penetrate, expand and break up the soil. As the ground is loosened, it is removed by a vacuum and stored in a holding tank, either for use as backfill or to be hauled away for disposal. In this way a pothole, measuring 12"x12" is created deep enough to expose the buried utility without running the risk of damaging the utility in the process of finding it.

WHY IT PAYS TO LOOK BEFORE YOU DIG

To pothole or not to pothole....that is the question. And today, more often than not, people in the underground utility industry are deciding that the best answer is to look first before digging or boring in the vicinity of existing utilities.

Potholing is the industry name for digging a hole in order to physically expose a utility so that it's exact location can be be determined. In this way the contractor helps insure that the existing utility will not be damaged by adjacent construction activities, such as directional boring, where the contractor is relying solely on instruments to determine the path of the borehead. And, finally, potholing is being required by legislation or contract in more and more parts of the country.

Once the decision to pothole has been made, the choice becomes whether to do it by hand (often with the "assistance" of a backhoe), or to use a vacuum excavator. The contractor decides on the basis of his evaluation of the relative costs of the two methods, weighted by his risk tolerance level. It is at this point that we often become involved with a contractor trying to decide whether to dig by hand or use a vacuum excavator. Both methods have their perceived advantages and disadvantages that must be weighed in light of a contractor's particular set of circumstances in order to arrive at the best possible decision.

Digging by hand offers the advantage of requiring a very small capital investment, but carries with it the very real drawbacks of being slow, more likely to result in employee injuries and much more likely to result in accidental damage to the buried utility.

Vacuum excavation, on the other hand, requires a significant capital investment but can pay for itself many times over by being much faster than hand digging, as well as being safer for employees and far less likely to cause utility accidents. Using compressed air, or in some cases high pressure water, a vacuum excavator disrupts the soil and removes it by vacuum into a holding tank. A typical pothole measuring 12"x12" square and 4-5 feet deep can be dug in 15 minutes or less with an average time of just 7-8 minutes in all soil conditions.

Introduced in 1993, and now with over one hundred systems in operation, the SYSTEM 3 is the flagship of the VACMASTERS product line. The SYSTEM 3 is ideally suited for fast, efficient potholing in ALL soil conditions, as well as for picking up directional boring mud slurry or a wide range of other vacuum clean-up tasks.

The most recent addition to the VACMASTERS family, the SYSTEM 2000 offers state-of-the-art technology, including selectable air or water digging, at an affordable price.

© Copyright 1999 Barone, Inc. All rights reserved.