One Kilometre a Day

As in every construction project, in horizontal directional drilling productivity is inversely proportional to time. Building a long line matters; but how long it takes you determines the value of the work.

Unfortunately, in our country, because of the inadequate technical staff and know-how and the limited logistical support at directional drilling companies, success on a project is measured not by how quickly it was finished but by whether it was finished at all. That in itself is a summary of how far the sector still has to go. In the past, Deltek has completed many projects ahead of the planned schedule thanks to detailed planning and dedicated work. Interestingly, on some of these projects — far from being rewarded for finishing early — we faced mind-boggling(!) demands from the client to the effect that, since the duration was shorter, our costs must have fallen, the contract price was therefore “not earned” and the payment certificate should be cut. When these events, which left us unable to hide our astonishment, were repeated after a while, the reality hit us once again that we live in a geography where the hours you put into a job are valued more than the total benefit the job creates.

In the USA, where exactly the opposite business culture prevails, an event took place that is a perfect example of this. Anderson Underground Inc. (www.andersonug.com), a Minnesota-based infrastructure company serving the Midwest, drilled a full 1,030 metres (3,380 ft) of line in one (1) day and became the holder of a new record in this field. They finished the total 7,620-metre run in 14 days.

Another striking point is that they achieved all these records not with very large machines but with a Ditch Witch JT25 (~12-tonne) HDD rig. Following the growing number of horizontal directional drilling projects in our country, clients demand ever-higher-tonnage rigs for reasons we cannot understand (much like the needless megapixel race in cameras); this record is highly meaningful in proving that on many projects that demand is unnecessary.

Although we congratulate Anderson Underground on this success, we are worried about whether they received their payments in full for finishing the job so quickly.