When refineries were first built several decades ago, excavating the earth to bury a labyrinth of pipeline energy systems obviously posed little risk of damage to pipelines and other utilities; but as plants and refineries age, expansion and pipeline repair processes are routine, making excavation safety a mandate!
Hydro excavation provides pipeline owners and contractors a safe, nondestructive method of exposing damaged valves, tie-in points, etc. It is not quite as fast as conventional methods of excavating with a backhoe, but hydro has proven to be the quickest and consistently safest means of excavation. Many plants and refineries are now mandating the use of hydro excavation technology during the course of routine maintenance or upgrades to existing facilities, mitigating explosions before they occur.
Our experience working in plants and refineries includes exploratory trenching for pre-design engineering, pier shaft excavations for pipeline foundation supports, deep box excavations around valve heads or pipeline anomalies, and more. We have worked in conjunction with conventional excavation methods, hydro excavating a pilot hole for the first 10 to 20 ft of a much deeper pier shaft, or even hydro trenching the perimeter of a box down to 15 ft before giving track hoe operators the green light to dig without risk of an inadvertent strike.
After shoring is set, we can enter the confined space and continue to hydro trench, repeating the process as needed. Once we put light on the valve or pipe, we polish off the exposure process using reduced water pressure, allowing maintenance contractors access to buried pipelines.
Applications: pier shafts, trenching for ground wires or electrical conduit, pit excavations, vacuum support during directional drill procedures, excavating in congested areas.