Growth Is Testing Our Industry

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Melfred Borzall has watched HDD move through multiple cycles over 80 years: early industry growth, the fiber boom and bust, infrastructure swings, and today’s convergence of broadband, power, and utility demand, which is accelerating to create unprecedented opportunity for HDD. It is also exposing some constraints the industry has. That growth is testing how well we transfer experience, prepare crews, standardize routine decisions, and reduce preventable jobsite friction.

Make Critical Decisions Repeatable

Experienced rig operators, locators, and foremen carry years of practical knowledge: how ground conditions affect a bore, when a connection is becoming a liability, which reamer fits the formation, and what must be staged before pullback. When that knowledge remains with only a few people, expansion creates a bottleneck. Pre-bore checklists, safety meetings, maintenance standards and escalation points make routine decisions repeatable while preserving experienced judgment for situations that truly require it.

Move Training Closer to the Frontline

Formal schools, manufacturer instruction and simulator programs are insurance against the “greenie” errors. A swivel inspection review before pullback, or a housing setup video before the pilot bore, connects training to the work crews about to perform the work. Creating a baseline of crew-shared knowledge and education is becoming more readily available… and it’s worth it!

Review Tooling & Productivity Regularly

As crews expand, tooling choices become increasingly important. Incorrect connection types for the current job, overly worn tools that risk breakage, and tools that aren’t specialized for the job’s ground conditions can lead to costly slowdown, errors, and downtime. Local HDD tooling specialists and specialized tools are safeguards against production-sucking errors. The days of one-tool-fits-all are over. Consistent profitability begins with regular pre-job tooling evaluations.

Equally, brief post-job reviews can capture what slowed the crew, which choices worked, and what should change on the next bore. That feedback turns individual experience into shared knowledge and connects training and tooling investments to downtime, rework and production constraints.

The infrastructure opportunity is already here. Contractors’ success may depend on their ability to develop crews and transfer knowledge to achieve consistent and profitable production.

Joshua Parker M.B.A. is Director of Marketing & eCommerce, Melfred Borzall.