Jobsite Video: 1,220-Foot HDD River Crossing After Three Failed Attempts
- undergroundtruth
- Aug 16
- 2 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
This is the kind of jobsite footage Underground Truth is built for: a difficult HDD crossing where the ground, elevation, tracking, pullback, and drilling-fluid plan all mattered.
NPL Construction was brought in to install duct beneath the Blue Earth River near Mankato, Minnesota, for Benco Electric. The new underground route would replace an aerial electric cable. Before NPL took the job, three previous drilling attempts had been abandoned.
The final crossing was 1,220 feet long. The launch point sat about 75 feet above the river, the planned path ran roughly 22 feet beneath the river bottom, and the exit climbed toward an eroded hillside. The formation included sand, sandstone, limestone, and cobble.
What the crew did
NPL used a Ditch Witch JT60 AT all-terrain drill for the pilot bore. Even after completing the pilot, the 4-inch poly duct became stuck during pullback. Rather than forcing a bad situation, the crew drilled a second pilot hole and successfully completed the installation.
Tracking was another unusual part of the job. Because the river was shallow enough, the locator could walk the bore path in waders while using the tracking system.
The crew also recycled drilling fluid. On a river crossing, controlling inadvertent returns is not just a cost issue; it is an environmental and operational concern. According to the project account, recycling reduced water, additive, and hauling needs substantially.
The installation was completed in about two weeks.
Why this video is worth watching
The value is not just seeing a big drill work. Watch the job as a sequence of decisions: entry geometry, tracking, ground changes, fluid handling, pullback trouble, and the willingness to re-bore instead of turning a difficult pull into a failure.
That is real field production—solving the problem without pretending the first plan always survives contact with the ground.
UGT takeaway: A successful bore is not the one with no problems. It is the one where the crew recognizes the problem early enough to still control the outcome.
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