Potholing in the Desert
“I’m an owner, but I’m also one of the operators. When we show up on the job, you’re getting the owner of the company and a crew that has pride in what they do,” says Michael Magill, co-owner of Desert Boring Excavation LLC, Coolidge, AZ.
Desert Boring’s services include directional drilling, pit digging, utility locating, and potholing, which has become the bread and butter of the company. Potholing for residential customers, utilities, and even engineered canal systems—with vacuum excavators—has grown in popularity in the Grand Canyon state.
Potholing in the Desert
“I’m an owner, but I’m also one of the operators. When we show up on the job, you’re getting the owner of the company and a crew that has pride in what they do,” says Michael Magill, co-owner of Desert Boring Excavation LLC, Coolidge, AZ. Desert Boring’s services include directional drilling, pit digging, utility locating, and potholing, which has become the bread and butter of the company. Potholing for residential customers, utilities, and even engineered canal systems—with vacuum excavators—has grown in popularity in the Grand Canyon state. [text_ad] One of Desert Boring’s primary clients is the city of Florence, AZ, a town of approximately 25,000 in the south-central part of the state. Desert Boring was contracted by the city primarily to work with the water and wastewater departments. A majority of the potholing work is focused on assisting the water department in repairing leaks. In an effort to prevent shutting down service to an entire neighborhood, the city of Florence prefers to perform maintenance without disabling the water system; it is this continual flow of water during the repair process that requires the use of a vac. Desert Boring will typically show up at the job site with its Vermeer by McLaughlin V800 LEHD vacuum excavator in tow. They will then use their McLaughlin Verifier G2 locator to identify where the utility lines run and use this location to excavate with their vac at the verified utility location. However, in the event that the leak has been flowing and the ground is too saturated, the crew does not have the luxury of time and will have to move in quickly with the vacuum excavator. Once the material has been removed and the water pipe has been exposed, then the line can be repaired. Most of the lines that need to be repaired are 1.25 inches or smaller. Desert Boring will vac a large pit that is either 4 by 5 feet or 4 by 6 feet; then they will remove all the material so the utility can actually cut the line at the leak and install a compression-style valve in the line. Nonetheless, when the pipe is cut, the vacuum is in place to suck up the water as fast as it is coming out to help maintain a workspace. To handle the hefty volume of water that the company deals with at many of its job sites, Desert Boring has had to increase the capabilities of its vacs. Originally, they rented an 800-gallon, low cfm vac with a 400-gallon water tank; after only two weeks of rental, Magill noticed the value and didn’t hesitate to invest in the larger vac. As the work began burgeoning and larger equipment became necessary, Desert Boring purchased a Vermeer by McLaughlin V800 LEHD high cfm vacuum excavator. “It made an absolute world of difference,” says Magill. “When there’s a line that the utility company has cut through and you’re sitting there sucking up 2 inches of water blowing out of a pipe, in a 500-gallon system, you might only get 45 to 50 seconds before the vac is full. If it is an 800-gallon vac, you’re able to go two minutes to two and a half minutes. It may not sound like a lot of time, but when you have somebody in the hole that’s trying to put a fitting on a line, that’s all you need,” says Magill.One of Desert Boring’s primary clients is the city of Florence, AZ, a town of approximately 25,000 in the south-central part of the state. Desert Boring was contracted by the city primarily to work with the water and wastewater departments. A majority of the potholing work is focused on assisting the water department in repairing leaks.
In an effort to prevent shutting down service to an entire neighborhood, the city of Florence prefers to perform maintenance without disabling the water system; it is this continual flow of water during the repair process that requires the use of a vac.
Desert Boring will typically show up at the job site with its Vermeer by McLaughlin V800 LEHD vacuum excavator in tow. They will then use their McLaughlin Verifier G2 locator to identify where the utility lines run and use this location to excavate with their vac at the verified utility location. However, in the event that the leak has been flowing and the ground is too saturated, the crew does not have the luxury of time and will have to move in quickly with the vacuum excavator.
Once the material has been removed and the water pipe has been exposed, then the line can be repaired. Most of the lines that need to be repaired are 1.25 inches or smaller. Desert Boring will vac a large pit that is either 4 by 5 feet or 4 by 6 feet; then they will remove all the material so the utility can actually cut the line at the leak and install a compression-style valve in the line. Nonetheless, when the pipe is cut, the vacuum is in place to suck up the water as fast as it is coming out to help maintain a workspace.
To handle the hefty volume of water that the company deals with at many of its job sites, Desert Boring has had to increase the capabilities of its vacs. Originally, they rented an 800-gallon, low cfm vac with a 400-gallon water tank; after only two weeks of rental, Magill noticed the value and didn’t hesitate to invest in the larger vac. As the work began burgeoning and larger equipment became necessary, Desert Boring purchased a Vermeer by McLaughlin V800 LEHD high cfm vacuum excavator.
“It made an absolute world of difference,” says Magill. “When there’s a line that the utility company has cut through and you’re sitting there sucking up 2 inches of water blowing out of a pipe, in a 500-gallon system, you might only get 45 to 50 seconds before the vac is full. If it is an 800-gallon vac, you’re able to go two minutes to two and a half minutes. It may not sound like a lot of time, but when you have somebody in the hole that’s trying to put a fitting on a line, that’s all you need,” says Magill.
