What started out as a job to vacuum drilling mud, turned into a much larger project for Connor Orban and his company, Utility Pipe Finders.
“The general contractor was using directional drilling for this project in Stow, Ohio, and we were just there to suck up the drilling mud,” Orban says. “The city supervisor is a big believer in potholing and they ended up having us do some of that work and we ended up doing more of the project.”
Original project plans called for three days of work, but it turned into three weeks of work because of capabilities of the company’s Premier hydroexcavators. “They found out how useful hydroexcavators can be,” Orban says.
Utility Pipe Finders, founded in 2015, offers hydroexcavation services to primarily municipalities throughout Ohio. “A lot of cities here in Ohio tend to think that when they buy sewer cleaners that they can be used for hydroexcavation,” Orban says. “They can do a little bit of it, but they aren’t specifically designed for that. We’re here to help them with those services now.”
Much of the work the company has been called out to do has been for water main repair because of the age of the pipe. The job in Stow was one of those water main repair jobs.
"Our first day on the job, the city had its sewer cleaner out there to help us,” Orban says. “But about midday, they sent their truck home and just used our trucks because of productivity. The sewer cleaner was just getting in the way versus just using our truck.”
The project called for 900 feet of water main replacement in a section that was prone to water main breaks. Utility Pipe Finders used two of its hydroexcavators for the job.
“HM Miller ended up using us every day but one,” Orban says. “Some days it was raining pretty hard and the sump pump they were using would take four or five hours to suck out the hole. We were able to clean out that hole in about five minutes.”
Crews were met with difficult soil conditions — including rock — at times, which allowed Utility Pipe Finders to experiment with different types of high-pressure nozzles to move the rock.
“It was the first job we did for Stow,” Orban says. “Our work saved the city two or three days of work. They were impressed with us and we have landed on the vendors list for the city now.”
PROJECT SNAPSHOT
Project: Water main replacement in Stow, Ohio
Contractor: Utility Pipe Finders
Lead contractor on site: HM Miller Construction
Equipment used: Two hydroexcavators from Premier
Length of work: Three weeks
Difficulties of job: Soil conditions, sometimes running into rock
Website: www.utilitypipefinders.com
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