Vacuum Excavation for Highway Projects
NRSWA-compliant digging in live carriageways and verges, with smaller openings and lower reinstatement costs.
Working in the public highway comes with its own set of pressures: the New Roads and Street Works Act, traffic management, permit windows, statutory undertaker obligations and a highway authority watching reinstatement standards. Every opening you make is time on the network and money on reinstatement - so the size, speed and precision of the dig matter more here than almost anywhere else.
Vacuum excavation is a natural fit for highway works. It creates small, controlled openings rather than the wide mechanical dig that safe-digging around services would otherwise demand, which means less surface to reinstate and lower cost under NRSWA. It's quicker than hand-digging in traffic-sensitive locations, so you spend less time holding a lane closure, and it removes the impact risk to the services packed under our carriageways and footways.
Typical highway works
Verge & footway works
Precise excavation in verges and footways with minimal disruption to the running network.
Carriageway openings
Small, controlled openings in live carriageways under traffic management, keeping the road open where possible.
Crossing points
Exposing services at crossings and junctions where apparatus is congested and margins are tight.
Service diversions
Diverting utilities ahead of road widening, resurfacing and improvement schemes.
Why it works on the highway
- Smaller openings
- Lower reinstatement cost
- Faster than hand-digging
- Reduced strike risk
- Less traffic disruption
Ahead of road schemes
Before a road-widening, resurfacing or junction improvement scheme can start, buried services often need to be proved and diverted. We expose and confirm apparatus in verges, footways and carriageways so diversions can be planned and executed cleanly - combining utility exposure with utility verification to keep the scheme moving and the network open.
Highway works in a live carriageway?
Send us the scope, location and dates and we'll come straight back with availability and a price. You'll speak to the operator - no call centres, no subcontractors.
Frequently asked questions
- Do you work under NRSWA?
- Yes. Highway works are carried out with the New Roads and Street Works Act in mind, alongside the traffic management and statutory undertaker obligations that come with working in the public highway. Smaller, more precise openings also mean simpler, cheaper reinstatement.
- Can you work in a live carriageway?
- We regularly work in traffic-sensitive locations under appropriate traffic management. Vacuum excavation is well suited to live carriageways because the openings are small and controlled, keeping disruption and the footprint of the works to a minimum.
- Why is vacuum excavation cheaper for reinstatement?
- Reinstatement under NRSWA is priced on the opening you create. Because suction excavation removes only the spoil it needs to, the excavation is smaller and neater than a mechanical dig, so there's less surface to reinstate and lower cost overall.
- Is it faster than hand-digging on the highway?
- Usually, yes. Where safe-digging rules would otherwise force slow hand excavation around services, vacuum excavation gets to depth far quicker while keeping the same level of control - which matters when you're holding a lane closure or working to a permit window.