"Nick Brooks" wrote in message
...
Hi all

I'd like to replace the water main to the house. The water company have
asked for a trench 750mm deep lined with pea-gravel or similar do be dug
from teh house to the road.

The biggest problem is that the trench will have to go through/under the
garden wall which is a 120 year old dry stone construction which may
well not cope well.

However , when a gas supply was installed, Transo used some sort of
tunneling device to connect two small holes. I wasn't at home at the
time so didn't see the operation, but a now wondering if a similar
machine could be used to bore a tunnel for the water pipe.

Can these machines be hired or does one have to get a specialist in?


Well I do know that the contracting firm "Murphy" can do this sort of thing,
as they are currently laying a massive gas main quite close to where I live,
using tunnelling machines. I'm not sure you would want to go to the
extremes of this, but it should be possible I would have thought. Guess
someone else might have knowledge of this.
--
Big Al