What Does
Trenchless Technology Mean?
Trenchless technology is a form of underground construction that requires the use of few or no trenches at surface or street level. Trenchless technology uses new techniques and equipment to install or replace underground infrastructure without causing disturbance to the ground above. Its goal is to avoid interfering with surface-level activities, including traffic, businesses, residential areas or people.
Trenchlesspedia Explains Trenchless Technology
The idea behind trenchless technologies is simple: rather than digging a trench that disturbs traffic, businesses and people, make a small vertical hole, then bore horizontally beneath the surface, like a mole, along a planned path to a specific destination.
Trenchless technologies also includes making repairs using processes such as pipe bursting, to replace piping and conduits in a single effort, without the need for trenching or even disposal of old pipe sections.
Tunneling is one of the oldest forms of trenchless construction. As machinery replaced muscle power, it became possible to bore tunnels up to 20 yards wide with a single path of a tunnel boring machine. This changed the way minerals were mined, subways were created and, as the technology became even more specialized, electrical, sewer and other critical infrastructure was built and rebuilt.
In North America, the professional society is the North American Society for Trenchless Technology. NASTT was founded in 1990, with the general aim of promoting the public and environmental benefits of trenchless technology.