Nationwide Pneumatic Vacuum Excavation service from the UK's safe digging experts..

Be ahead of the game, eliminate utility strikes and adhere to industry best practice..

How much does a utility strike cost your company? For a utility supplier there is the disruption to supplies, the lost revenue, the negative publicity and the customer service issues. For a contractor there are serious cost implications, project delays, and the potential damage to its relationship with its client. Above all, however, utility strikes can injure operatives and members of the public. Sadly, in some cases, utility strikes can kill. We can stop all of this..

Vacuum Excavation is an intrinsically safe system for uncovering and exposing the threat from buried services, and a flexible option for removing material from awkward or sensitive areas. These small vacuum excavators range from trailer units towed by Land Rovers, up to 7.5t truck units and are ideal for slip trenching, bore holes and trial pits. 

As with hydro excavation, pneumatic excavation is 100% safe to both the utility/service and the operative. Air is compressed and injected into the ground, this air de-compresses once in the ground and reverts to atmospheric pressures, thus breaking down and pulverizing the geology..allowing for safe removal via onboard vacuum systems. Air however, like water, its compressible..meaning up on encountering non pervious objects and materials, the air compresses and goes around it, leaving items such as utilities, ducts, pipe, wires and fibre optics un-touched. This also means however, that air/pneumatic excavation isn't suitable for excavating in cohesive geology such as clay and PFA, for safe excavation in these types of materials hydro systems must be used. The air/pneumatic excavators utilized by adp Group are also 100% safe to the operative due to them being ZERO vibratory and tested to withstand 100,000 volts.

For more information on how the pneumatic excavation tools work click here.

Benefits of Pneumatic Excavation:

- 100% safe to both utility and operator

- Using air to excavate eliminates the water, thus leaving material dry and ideal for back-filling

- Industry best practice according to HS(G)47

- Fast, effective excavation in areas with access issues

- Keyhole surgery of trial pits, no need to excavate large areas/amounts of material

Downside's:

- Not suitable for use in cohesive geology, hydro excavation must be used in such conditions

Pneumatic Vacuum Excavation method:

1. Air Spade tools are used to safely excavate and de-compact the sub base. Pneumatic excavators work by injecting compressed air into the sub base at 1500mph, this jet of compressed air is very effective at breaking up non-cohesive materials whilst still being 100% safe to any sensitive buried objects/utilities/tree roots.

2. After de-compaction of sub base material has been achieved by the hydro-jet, the loosened spoil can be safely removed by high performance vacuum; if access is limited the vacuum excavation unit is capable of working distances of up to 100m from the excavation (geology dictates maximum distance).

3. After the excavation is complete the recovered material is safely contained in a water tight spoils tank or in-line interceptor, this can then be used for back fill or if contaminated transferred for removal.

All of our pneumatic excavators also have hydro systems onboard, meaning if cohesive materials are encountered we can easily switch over to hydro.

Vacuum Excavation services include:

Vacuum Excavation Applications:

• Safe slip trenching around all utilities
• Safe excavation in material contaminated with asbestos and hydrocarbons etc
• Industrial cleaning of powders/dust 
• Bulk excavation 
• Guaranteed service clearance
• Pre-drilling boreholes
• Silt clearance from monitoring wells
• Gully cleaning 
• Bentonite/mud/slurry removal 
• Activated carbon removal
• Well installation at depths of up to 3m
• Railway ballast removal 
• Horizontal boring 
• Silt removal from drains 
• Environmental spill clear up, contamination contained in tank 
• Safe pot holing 
• Safe trial pitting 
• Safe tree root exposure 
• Bespoke projects 

Operator Training:

• National Grid Persons 
• National Grid BESC 
• National Grid Competent Persons 
• SPA 
• SMSTS 
• SSSTS
• NRSWA 
• CSCS CPCS 
• First Aid 
• HSG-47 
• Full UK driving licences 
• HGV Licences 
• SHEA Gas 
• Vacuum excavation competency cards 

 *Apologies for the continued use of Keywords such as Utility Surveying, Utility Mapping, Diamond Coring, Vacuum Excavation, Hydrovac, Environmental Drilling, Water Well Drilling and Geothermal Drilling; such word repetition is the requirement of search engines.