Horizontal Directional Drilling is a way to bury tubing, piping or lines beneath the earth without massive amounts of trenching. It utilizes a small drilling rig with a drill bit on the end of a long, flexible shaft, and a GPS locator for pinpointing where the drill bit will come up. The drill bit is inserted into the ground, and drills down to the targeted depth. Once it reaches that depth, the operator levels the bit and drills out horizontally hundreds of feet. When the desired length is reached, the operator then surfaces the bit to come out right by the GPS locator, providing a long hole in the ground that is able to go beneath just about anything to run lines, piping or tubes to a desired location.
HDD provides a great alternative to traditional trenching, and is less invasive, less expensive, and doesn’t tear up the area like trenching does.
