Estimate cost of trenching through Asphalt surface

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Eclectic engineer

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Hello,
I am looking to get an estimate of trenching through asphalt surface (Parking lot).
I am browsing through RSMeans, but I am unable to find something similar.

Any inputs would be appreciated.
Thanks.
 
I’ve always saw cut and removed the asphalt before trenching, you have the cost of a dumpster for spoils removal too. Directional bore is much cheaper if doable. Less warranty issues too if the pavement repair fails.
 
Its very common to have to sawcut one foot wider than your trench. If there's sidewalk, curb and gutter, it's expansion joint to expansion joint. Haul off and dispose of all the waste. Install your product. Backfill and compact to 95% compressive strength. Replace and backfill & compact gravel subgrade. Then finally replace and compact asphalt. Oh, and if the trench settles, come back and fix it.

Another vote for directional drilling here. In fact I bought a used Vermeer 7x11 for one job. It was actually cheaper to buy it than open trenching and replacing asphalt and sidewalk.
 
I had some boring done and it was really cheap. Want to say 750$ to bore under a street. Whatever the cost was I know I’ll pretty much go that route every time.
 
Thank you for your responses.
Is directional drilling always cheaper than trenching?
Are there any applications where Trenching makes more sense ?
Like shorter runs of 10' to 50'?
Or to install a 2" PVC conduit?

I am looking for commercial applications where there is a need to pull wire from the electrical room to the parking lot to install EV chargers.
 
There are a lot of "it depends"....

DD has it's limits, like you're supposed to hand-dig around possible obstructions and you still need to dig at the ends. Or that you can only pull up to a certain size of pipe(s) back through, so a 2" pipe could go but 3 2" pipes are out. (I usually see people pulling HDPE into a DD hole, never thought of trying PVC.... (If you need to drop in four 4" pipes, I think the only choice is a real trench.)

In this particular case, what's between the building and the charger site? Is it paving all the way or is there dirt at the building? If the only paving is a single sidewalk, maybe punch under that and trench the rest. If the parking lot runs right up to the building you're going to have to dig there, anyway (and repair the lot surface).
 
zbang said:
There are a lot of "it depends"....

DD has it's limits, like you're supposed to hand-dig around possible obstructions and you still need to dig at the ends. Or that you can only pull up to a certain size of pipe(s) back through, so a 2" pipe could go but 3 2" pipes are out. (I usually see people pulling HDPE into a DD hole, never thought of trying PVC.... (If you need to drop in four 4" pipes, I think the only choice is a real trench.)

In this particular case, what's between the building and the charger site? Is it paving all the way or is there dirt at the building? If the only paving is a single sidewalk, maybe punch under that and trench the rest. If the parking lot runs right up to the building you're going to have to dig there, anyway (and repair the lot surface).
Click to expand...
Had a boring company pull 4 2" and 1 1" in the same bore.

Has to do with equipment size, I guess.

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I've pulled 200 ft of 2" sch 40 pvc conduit in a 4 1/2" directional bore. Just need room to glue to together ahead of time.

A friend of mine has the contract with the local power utility for their directional bores. Usually road crossings. I've seen him pull back one 6" and two 4" hdpe conduits at the same time. Not sure what size his bore was, probably 16" or larger. He has a half dozen machines of various sizes and capacities.

There are companies with HDD rigs capable of pulling 24" or larger over 5,000 feet in length. Like for river crossings.
 
masterinbama said:
Had a boring company pull 4 2" and 1 1" in the same bore.

Has to do with equipment size, I guess.

Sent from my moto e using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Had a bore done recently for (6)x 2” and (4)x 1”; they bored two holes and split the conduit evenly between them. The utility contractor I use can bore up to a 48” hole. They do a lot of water/sewer work.


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