Potholing is the process of digging out special usually very deep holes to reveal any utility pipes or lines buried underground. The practice is very important for the safety of any construction site even in the case of land that is properly mapped from the point of view of the existing utilities because you can never know when your excavator can run into a pipe that does not appear on the maps because it is so old.
In the past, potholing used to be a very complicated process that involved the presence of many people and that also involved the risk of accidents, such as explosions. Hydro excavation has changed all these by making it possible to create the potholes safely even if utility pipes do exist where the excavation is being performed. Hydrovac trucks are essential for ensuring the safety of the process by using the power of water pulverized onto the ground under pressure instead of using the mechanical power of an excavator cup. The potholing process is also made very fast and very efficient by hydrovac trucks – these high-capacity machines are able to create even the deepest pothole within the fraction of the time that would be needed with other excavation methods.