Micro machine
The AIR-VAC micro vacuum excavator was built for excavating around congested
buried live utilities in areas with limited access space. Robin Hackett hears how
the Water Industry Award-winning technology is helping Morrison Utility Services
overcome major challenges
The Knowledge
Innovation Zone
I
n 2017, Morrison Utility Services be-
gan searching for a vacuum excava-
tor that would allow it to tackle the
challenges it faced on a daily basis as
part of its work in central London.
Installing smart meters for Thames
Water, MUS was having to contend with
highly congested roads with limited
parking above ground as well as highly
congested utilities below ground.
Vacuum excavation offered a solu-
tion. The technique involves using an
air lance to inject compressed air into
the ground while a powerful vacuum re-
moves the loosened soil and, compared
to traditional excavation methods, the
risk of service strikes is significantly
reduced.
"Footpaths in the UK are very chal-
lenging because there are so many
services," Dan Tonkin, operations man-
ager at MUS, says. "Other than vacuum
excavation, the Health and Safety
Executive's guidelines say the only safe
way to dig when you have the risk of
service strikes is to hand-excavate.
"At the peak of this programme, we
had something like 40 dig teams digging
eight holes a day by hand, and that is
backbreaking work – there's not only
24 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk
