Reaching the Unreachable in Texas

Expose potential danger and limit risk: SUE expands into Texas

Damaging underground utilities during construction can be dangerous, even deadly. Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) is one of the most effective ways possible to minimize risk and create safer job sites. Building on our successful SUE Services in Florida and North Carolina, McKim & Creed is proud to expand our SUE services into Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

SUE can verify the existence, condition and exact location of underground utilities through four quality levels of service. These range from information gathered solely from existing utility records (QL-D) to non-destructive digging to reveal the horizontal and vertical position, as well as size and type, of the utility (QL-A).

To handle the dense black gumbo clay that is prevalent in East Texas, McKim & Creed has added a state-of-the-art hydro evacuation system to our SUE service. The Vactor HXX Prodigy uses either high-pressure water or pressurized air to break up soil. A powerful vacuum system clears the excavation area to expose the utilities.

“Here in Texas our clay soils can be dense, and it can be extremely difficult to break up that soil if you don’t have hydro capabilities,” says Greg Jeffries, McKim & Creed’s regional SUE manager in Texas. “We’re working on a project with dense shale soil, and air has a very difficult time punching through that. Our new Prodigy rig can also reach deeper utilities, with significantly increased suction power, electro-hydraulic boom and 30+ feet of suction tube extensions. In other words, utilities that are beyond the reach of smaller systems are fully reachable by McKim & Creed.”

McKim & Creed is currently providing SUE services for transportation, highway, commercial and residential projects.