Cable plowing is another technology installation means that Loy Clark Construction uses to install underground infrastructure. This technology, like horizontal directional drilling, has been around for a while, but has developed further in the recent past.
How It Works
Cable plowing is typically performed on large, open, soft-surface areas to install utility conduit(s). Direct bury cable also can be installed by this means of trenchless construction. In this method of underground utility construction, a machine creates a narrow slot in the ground surface. Depending on the subsurface geology and designed depth of the utility it requires, sometimes it takes several passes to loosen the ground to create a “plow slot” of the required width and depth necessary to install either conduit(s) or direct bury cable into the slot as the equipment rolls forward along the established running line. This conduit is coiled on a reel mounted at the back of the machine and fed from the reel over some pullies and into the plow chute, which directs and places the end-use product into the bottom of the bore slot. The slot is then back-filled and compacted by a process of blading or “wheel rolling” the excavated material back into the slot, resulting in minimal disturbance to the site’s surface.
Cable plowing also can be used in small projects, such as in yards and soft-surfaced landscaped areas to install infrastructure like telephone, natural gas and cable television infrastructure. The plowing process creates far less disturbance to the surface and results in a cleaner finished installation.
Our Fleet
Loy Clark has a wide range of equipment to install underground utilities by means of cable plowing, including smaller walk-behind units, medium-sized, rubber-tired, ride-along plows and steel-tracked dozer plows that can offset the plow chute used for roadway and cross-country applications.