Advantages of HDD

Overview of standalone methods of fiber-optic communication lines installation

Today, there are many methods of cable installation. These are:

Ordinary civil engineering
Plow cable method
Horizontal directional drilling
The process of milling and digging
Ground-based cables/overhead cables installation
Cables installing in the existing communications.

We will focus only on some of them:

Cable plow installing method is suitable only for open spaces, trunk cable installing, surfaces without hard coating and natural or/and artificial barriers. It is necessary to use additional dumping equipment and labor resources. Not applicable in urban and dense building.

Milling and digging - about 40% less cost than normal construction work, but this involves a significant limitation of traffic; noise, public dissatisfaction, destruction of the roadway; subsidence of surface is possible in case of poor-quality tamping, and other inconveniences. Not applicable in urban and dense building.

Ordinary civil engineering. In conventional or classical civil engineering, pits for laying pipes for cable are dug by excavation. The depth is usually not less than 60 cm. Only relatively short distances are reached in 1 day, but this may vary depending on the top layer and soil class. Compared to other installing methods, the required space and time are relatively large. In addition, conventional civil engineering as a whole is relatively expensive, and the required working width of more than 2.5m may affect the traffic. Additional costs for restoration and landscaping of the working area should be taken into account. Please note that this is a relatively expensive method.

HDD as an alternative

Bearing in mind modern development of equipment used for trenchless communications laying, we propose to consider such alternative method of fiber-optic communication lines installing as Horizontal Directional Drilling and, in some cases - Microtunnelling. Horizontal directional drilling (HDD method) is a way to install various communications underground using the trenchless method. When using this method, landscape surface remains untouched, including landscaping elements, roadway, buildings and other objects. At the moment, there are several proven methods of horizontal directional drilling that have been developed, they are actively used in order to reduce the cost of communications installing and to preserve objects on the surface of the ground.