Daylighting / Potholing
As part of hydro excavation, daylighting and potholing help contractors confirm utility depth, alignment, and field conditions before high-risk work begins.
Hydro excavation methodDaylighting exposes a buried utility so your crew can see it: position, depth, size, and condition. Potholing does the same at spot locations along a bore path or trench line.
Surface marks tell you roughly where a line runs. An open exposure tells you exactly. That difference protects your schedule, your equipment, and the people in the trench.
Before directional bores, trench crossings, tie-ins, repairs near live lines, and any dig where the locate ticket leaves doubt.
Gas, water, sewer, storm, electric, telecom, and fiber. One pothole or a full series along the bore path.
Visual confirmation of depth and alignment, exposure photos, and a hole sized to the next crew's work.
Trenching, slot trenching, and debris removal are other tasks within hydro excavation.
Single exposures are usually priced per pothole, with an hourly fallback for hard ground. A series along a bore path gets a project quote.
Ground and depth decide it. In typical soil a crew works through eight to twelve potholes a day.
Yes. Holes get backfilled and compacted to your spec, or plated when the exposure needs to stay open.