The Growing Demand for Vacuum Excavation

Robust growth in the housing sector, as well as expansion of the non-residential building market mean excavation services are in high demand. While this may not come as a surprise to most, what you might find interesting is that more builders and public works departments are insistent that any new infrastructure or updates to existing infrastructure be done with the best environmental practices possible. This is where the vacuum or vactor excavation comes in. If you don’t know what vacuum excavation is today, chances are you will in the not so distant future.

In simple terms, vactor or vacuum excavation is digging by using a high suction vacuum to remove material while high-pressure water jets act as a drilling medium. It is a method of excavation that is considered much more environment-friendly because it is less disruptive to the actual ground and existing infrastructure, such as pipes, wires and especially fibre-optic cables.  As the holes are dug, the system carries debris, sludge, as well as potential contaminants into a tank joined to the vacuum, for safe disposal. Another big benefit to vacuum excavation is that is allows for small repair holes, only possible with a vacuum, which reduces environmental and surface replacement costs, not to mention it is less disruptive to traffic and any local business operations.

There are different types of vacuum trucks. Some are designed for sewage disposal; others are for excavation and are often called, “soft diggers”.

“We have been keeping a very close eye on the building industry and in particular, on the growing environmental sensitivity of excavation. What we see is strong demand for productive non-destructive excavation. And now with our ISO-9001 certification and with the vacuum truck having multiple applications, it certainly makes sense for us to explore the possibility of adding some form of vacuum excavation to the box of tools we can offer our growing customer base. The resulting profits will help expand more of the lucrative green initiatives we’ve been exploring,” Sparta president, John O’Bireck recently stated.

Most municipal officials report that they are turning to vacuum excavation for environmental reasons and because it means there is less likelihood of a power line or underground pipe being damaged.

Sparta Update (Cont.)

What’s Happening?

Next month, Sparta’s Illumineris division is beginning a Beta test at a major Canadian steel pipe manufacturer. This is just prior to launching the company’s new software platform that will enable clients to manage energy at the asset level and use the mesh system from lights to communicate with a gateway that aggregates energy used from a number of different devices, including motors, pumps, lights, and other electrical loads. The newly developed software platform will help customers better understand where, how and when they are using energy. From there it is a matter of adjusting behaviour to gain significant cost savings.

In conjunction with the mesh network, Illumineris is now offering a dynamic power factor correction system that can continuously monitor and report (through the mesh network) clients’ power usage and inefficiencies. It can automatically adjust the phase relationship between voltage and current, saving significant amounts of money while reducing the environmental impact in the process. In fact, the savings can be so great that programs are being designed to offer the equipment free of charge, and simply pay for the capital costs through savings. What makes this technology even more exciting is that the savings can be accurately predicted prior to installation, making it possible to offer a money back guarantee.