
Vacuum Excavation Market Evolves Toward Safety Amid Continued Expansion
Available in either dry or hydro configurations, vacuum excavators are also available as trailer-mounted units or on truck chassis. These machines have been adapted to perform multiple applications.
From sucking up drilling spoils to potholing for utility locates, vacuum trucks have become indispensable tools on the job site for trenchless contractors.
However, the technology also is popular on open-cut pipeline projects, nuclear plant construction, disaster recovery efforts, and more. They can also be used for slot-trenching to install communications cables.
Vacuum excavators’ ability to perform non-destructive digging and site cleanup applications makes them a versatile tool for the construction contractor toolbox.
Dedicated vacuum excavation trucks were developed in the 1990s. They started to become popular in the U.S. construction industry in the 2000s. Bill Gaff, vice president of sales and marketing for Vacuum Truck Rentals, has been involved in the industry since its infancy. He had worked for a manufacturer prior to joining his current company.
“When I started, they were still taking old sewer cleaning trucks and mounting them on tractor vehicles in Canada because nobody would build a dedicated machine,” Gaff says. “Obviously, the hydro excavation and actually the entire vacuum truck industry has grown significantly over the last 20 years.”
Gaff says a big reason for that growth is how regulators and project owners have embraced non-destructive and non-invasive excavation. This method is particularly useful to expose existing underground infrastructure prior to new construction activities.
Read more in our Trenchless Technology Special Report: Vacuum Excavation. Download it for free here.