Over the past five years there has been a drastic shift in the UK towards non-mechanical excavation. This is mostly due to the risk of damaging fibre optic cables and utilities, as well as safety advantages to non-mechanical excavation. Vacuum excavation units are now commonplace on construction sites, utility repairs and new installations.
Non-mechanical excavation has been around for a long time (Johnston Sweepers produced vacuum excavators in the 1980’s) but due to demand being low at the time, the product was dropped. Additionally, Johnston – now Bucher Municipal, offered a modified truck mounted road sweeper that could become a vacuum excavator. This has been popular in Australia over the years, but the option has not been actively promoted in the UK.
In mainland Europe, companies tend to use large vacuum excavators with air jets and rods to loosen and move dirt, Oceania use smaller sweeper style vacuum excavators, whilst in America hydro-excavation is preferred using high pressure jetting to dig the holes or excavate around the utilities.
Regardless of the option chosen, purpose-built excavators can be expensive and lead times are extending out to over a year. Similarly, daily rates to hire one of these units can be significantly higher than a conventional back-hoe digger.
To solve these problems, Bucher Municipal has announced they can offer a Hydro-excavation option on the FlexLine and SuperFlex models for a fraction of the cost of a purpose-built unit.
The company also say the Bucher Flexline Sewer Cleaner can double up as a hydro-excavator to dig post holes, removing soil and stones from around utilities without damaging cables or electrics. This option widens the use of the already flexible combination unit and could allow for additional revenue on construction sites. For companies who provide civil contracts as well as sewer cleaning services the option could reduce the number of vehicles required in the fleet.
Bucher Municipal has a hydro-excavation option on a demonstration unit, so for anyone interested in testing the technology they suggest giving your local sales manager a call to arrange a visit to show what it can do.
