As another year comes to a close, it’s time to look back at where we’ve been — but for Dig Different, I’m just as interested in where the underground infrastructure industry is headed.
Spend enough time around the contractors, manufacturers and crews we cover, and one thing becomes obvious: This industry isn’t standing still.
Technology becomes more capable and is getting smarter. Contractors, like you, find new ways to complete difficult jobs and methods that were once considered specialized become just another routine way of doing the project.
That evolution is also shaping Dig Different.
A BROADER LOOK UNDERGROUND
You may have noticed a new tagline appearing at the top of the magazine: Innovations in Excavation. Driving Infrastructure Progress.
I think those six words do a good job of describing what Dig Different is all about, and where we’re going.
Vacuum excavation and horizontal directional drilling have long been core parts of our coverage, and that isn’t changing. There is a large amount of innovation happening in both markets, and we’ll continue bringing you stories about the contractors, equipment and technology pushing those industries forward.
Underground construction, however, is a much bigger world.
Pipe bursting, tunneling, trenchless rehabilitation, utility locating, inspection technologies, automation and other construction methods all play a role in how infrastructure gets installed, repaired and maintained.
Sometimes the best tool for the job is still an excavator, backhoe, dozer or skid-steer.
That’s why you’ll see us expand our coverage of traditional excavation equipment and services in several issues in 2027. We’re not moving away from the trenchless and vacuum excavation industries that have helped define this magazine, but we are more comprehensively recognizing how contractors work.
A company might use vacuum excavation to safely expose utilities, HDD to install a portion of a project and an excavator to complete another. Pipe bursting might be the answer on one sewer replacement while opencut excavation makes more sense on the next.
While the methods are different, the objectives are the same: Get the infrastructure in the ground safely, efficiently and successfully.
LOOKING AHEAD
One of my favorite parts of working on Dig Different is seeing how contractors combine all these tools and techniques to solve problems in the field.
Innovation doesn’t always mean replacing what came before. Sometimes it means making an established method faster, safer or more precise. Other times it means combining several technologies to accomplish something that would have been more difficult five or 10 years ago.
That’s the story we want to tell even more in the year ahead.
As we wrap up this year, thank you to everyone who has shared a project, opened their shop doors, answered our questions or simply picked up an issue of Dig Different. We appreciate having you along for the ride.
Let me know what your company has in store for 2027. Email me at editor@digdifferent.com.
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