Areas
Directional drilling and vacuum excavation, Illawarra and South Coast
Spot On Excavations travels from North Richmond, NSW to the Illawarra and South Coast, from Wollongong and Shellharbour to Kiama, Nowra, Ulladulla and Batemans Bay, for directional drilling, vacuum excavation and pipe or conduit installation. It is a service area, not a base, and each job is planned around the trip.
Who does directional drilling on the NSW South Coast?
Spot On Excavations travels from its North Richmond base to the Illawarra and South Coast for directional drilling, vacuum excavation and pipe or conduit installation. We do not have a published project on the South Coast, and we are not going to invent one. What we have is a fleet that travels, a crew that works away from base, and the same methods that suit coastal ground as well as Sydney's. If you need a contractor for a crossing, a conduit run or a service location on the coast, we will quote on the job and tell you honestly how the travel affects it.
Ground along the coast
The Illawarra escarpment drops steeply to a narrow coastal plain, so Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama sit on a mix of fill, clay and sandstone, with rock close to the surface in places. Further south, around Nowra and the Shoalhaven, river flats and sand become more common, and the headlands at Ulladulla and Batemans Bay bring rock and shallow soil. Our dual-rod Vermeer D40x55DR S3 is built for rock, and our vacuum trucks suit sandy ground where hand digging collapses. Details of the rigs are on the horizontal directional drilling page.
Environmentally sensitive crossings
The coast has creeks, estuaries, dunes, lakes and sensitive vegetation, and many jobs cross them. Drilling avoids the open cut, which means less disturbance to a creek bank or a dune. We plan drilling fluid, entry and exit pit locations and spoil handling so that fluid stays out of waterways, and we work to any environmental conditions the owner sets. Our road and creek crossings page covers how bores pass under roads, creeks and rail corridors.
What we bring
For a coastal job we send a rig sized to the work, a vacuum truck for pits and service exposure, and compact excavators and tippers. potholing confirms what is buried before the bore, and pipe and conduit installation describes the pipe and conduit we handle. Telecommunications, electrical conduit and water are the typical fits.
How does a crew get to the South Coast?
A crew mobilises from North Richmond with the rigs and vac trucks, and the trip is planned into the quote:
- Jobs here are best planned as blocks of work, which spreads the trip over more metres of installation.
- Tell us the town, the scope and any environmental or council conditions in the first enquiry.
- We confirm BYDA, access and pit locations before the crew leaves North Richmond.
- Where it makes sense, we combine drilling with vacuum excavation in the same trip.
What we bring
Plant we mobilise to the coast
- Vermeer drill rigD40x55DR S3 dual-rod, D40x55 S3 or D23x30 S3, chosen to suit the job.
- Vacuum excavation truckPits and service exposure without cutting buried assets.
- Compact excavatorDeere E36ZS or Yanmar ViO30 for pits and trenches.
- DigiTrak F5 steeringTracking the bore in mixed coastal ground.
- Tipper and trailerSpoil, pipe and plant transport.
- BYDA enquiries before every job.
- Digital pre-starts by QR code, risk assessments and a safe work method statement.
- Drilling fluid and spoil planned to protect creeks, estuaries and dunes.
Questions
South Coast and Illawarra questions
Do you have a base on the South Coast?
No. Our base is at 836 Kurmond Road, North Richmond. The South Coast is a service area we travel to.
Have you done a South Coast project?
We have none published on this site yet, so we do not describe any. We will tell you honestly what we know of the ground before you commit.
Which towns do you cover?
Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama, Nowra, Ulladulla and Batemans Bay, and places between them.
Can you drill under creeks and estuaries?
Directional drilling is how we usually cross creeks without open cutting. Each crossing needs a site look and, often, council or owner conditions, which we plan around.
Is it worth bringing a crew for a small job?
Travel adds cost to a small job. Several jobs in the same area or a block of work make more sense. Call us and we will say what is practical.
Related
Next step
Got a coastal job?
Tell us the town, the scope and the timing, or call 0414 468 616.