Directional drilling in Athens, Georgia

Boring instead of digging in Athens

Every utility that reaches a building in Athens has to get there underground, and the straight line from the main to the meter almost always runs under something that is expensive to cut: a curb and gutter the county just rebuilt, a stamped-concrete driveway, a restaurant's only parking lot, a stand of hardwoods, a creek with a buffer ordinance. A directional drilling crew sets a rig at one end, drills a steerable pilot hole under all of it, and pulls the pipe or conduit back through. The surface is never opened between the two pits. That is the whole product, and it is why developers, electrical contractors, fiber builders and homeowners across Clarke County call a bore crew instead of renting a trencher.

On a small job the rig fits in a driveway, the pits are the size of a doormat, and the crew is gone the same afternoon. On a utility job the rig is bigger, the bore is tracked rod by rod with a walkover locator, and the shots are planned around the GDOT or county permit that controls depth and alignment under the road. Either way the drilling fluid holds the hole open until the product is in, so the ground around the bore stays undisturbed.

What Davis Underground Solutions, Inc. puts in the ground

• Fiber-optic conduit and drop lines for the carriers and co-ops building out Georgia.
• Electrical conduit: primary feeds, secondary services, parking-lot lighting, EV charging circuits.
• Water services and mains under roads, driveways and creeks.
• Sewer force mains and laterals where the route crosses pavement or trees.
• Gas mains and services to the gas company's standard, coordinated with its crews.
• Steel casings for road, highway and rail crossings by auger boring when the permit asks for one.

Each has a page of its own for Athens: start with horizontal boring, then fiber-optic drilling and electrical conduit drilling, or see the full list on all services.

Georgia ground, from the Piedmont to the coast

North of the Fall Line the state sits on the Piedmont: red clay at the top, weathered rock (saprolite) under it, and hard granite or gneiss somewhere below that, sometimes within a few feet of the surface. A trench through that is slow and leaves a scar; a directional bore with the right tooling goes through clay and saprolite steadily and through rock with a mud motor or a rock bit. South and east of the Fall Line the Coastal Plain takes over, with sands, kaolin clays and a water table that can be a shovel's depth down near the rivers and the coast. Open trenches slump there; a fluid-supported bore does not. A crew that drills Georgia full time plans the tooling for the ground under Athens before the trailer leaves the yard.

The company behind this page

Davis Underground Solutions, Inc. is a Georgia corporation headquartered in the metro Atlanta area, with its own directional rigs, vac truck and crews. Georgia is home territory, which means no mobilization fee for Clarke County work and a short drive for a site walk. The company is known for answering the phone and showing up on the date it gave, which in this trade is most of the battle. Davis Underground Solutions has the equipment list and project photos. Everything submitted on this site, and every call to the number at the top, goes directly to the company. Estimates are free. Call now: (678) 264-3333.

What goes into a price

Length of the bore, size and material of the product, what the bore crosses, the cover the permit requires, soil and rock conditions, and room for the rig and the pipe string. A Georgia 811 locate and a site walk come first. Send a sketch or the utility's drawing through the form below and you will have an answer within 24 hours.

The company's own page on Davis Underground Solutions, Inc. goes deeper into methods, equipment and recent projects.