Taking the low road

MANY hole-in-the-road traffic holdups could be avoided in future if contractors start turning to remote control tunnelling systems. The illustration above shows a laser-guided tunnelling machine using a cutting head to excavate the route for a new pipeline. Hydraulic jacks push the pipes through from behind to complete the pipeline while the excavated earth is passed back and pumped to the surface in the form of a slurry.

Euro Iseki of Stratford-on-Avon, which supplies the technology, says that pipejacking is cheaper than digging trenches, and that there is less risk of subsequent soil settlement because of the lower volume of excavated material.

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