Trenchless technology refers to construction methods for installing new pipelines or rehabilitating existing pipelines in areas where traditional open-cut construction would not be permitted, practical or possible. Examples of typical trenchless technology applications include pipeline crossings under highways and railways, rivers and lakes, steep slopes, environmentally sensitive areas, city streets and other developed areas.

Over the past 20 years, GeoEngineers’ staff experts have completed more than one million feet of trenchless projects, including pipelines from 4 to 116 inches in diameter, installed by horizontal directional drilling (HDD), microtunneling, Earth Pressure Balance Machine (EPBM) tunneling, pilot-tube-guided boring, pipe ramming, shield tunneling, auger bore and jack, pipe bursting and pipe reaming. We have completed hundreds of HDD crossings throughout the United States, Central and South America, Asia, and Africa with lengths in excess of 8,000 feet and pipe diameters up to 56 inches.

Within the trenchless market, GeoEngineers has a particular expertise with United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) design and permit requirements for trenchless technology crossings of levees. In fact, our work on hydraulic fracture and fluid loss is incorporated in an official USACE publication on installing HDDs under levees. This expertise is recognized worldwide and has made our firm a leader in geotechnical site characterization studies for pipeline crossings.

Our Trenchless Services

We assist our clients in all phases of trenchless technology projects as part of an integrated suite of services, including:

• Alternatives analysis—Planning-stage evaluation of routing options, construction feasibility and preliminary cost estimating
• Full project design—Route assessment, plan and profile design, installation and operational analysis, contract document preparation and engineering cost estimates
• Geotechnical evaluation—Site exploration, geologic reconnaissance, laboratory testing, geohazards evaluation and mitigation
• Geotechnical reporting—Geotechnical data, design summary and baseline reports
• Environmental services—Ecological assessments, permitting and environmental remediation
• Construction bid and specifications support, management, monitoring, analysis and documentation
• Claims evaluation for differing site conditions

GeoEngineers’ Trenchless Recognition

• 2011 ACEC-Missouri Grand Award for Chevron pipeline crossing of Mississippi River
• Trenchless Technology magazine’s Top 25 trenchless design firms, 2010
• 2009 ACEC-Missouri Grand Award for a world record 5,780-feet, 30-inch-diameter HDD shore approach for BP Trinidad and Tobago