Directional drilling through rock, under rivers and beneath traffic
Horizontal directional drilling is a core Cannon service for carriers, utilities, municipalities and the prime contractors who serve them, with rigs from 9,000 to 250,000 pounds of pullback. The work that defines it is in difficult ground: solid and cobble rock, river and wetland crossings, and urban corridors where the bore has to thread existing utilities without an open cut.
What Cannon bores
Wet utility and grade bores
Grade sanitary sewer bores, force main sanitary sewer bores and waterline bores, including emergency force main replacement under permit.
River, creek and wetland crossings
Permitted crossings with frac-out monitoring and containment, such as the 600 foot river crossing in 12 inch HDPE for the City of Aberdeen's Pump Station 4 force main.
Solid and cobble rock
Rock tooling and mud systems sized for the formation: 20 bores and 5,362 feet in rock at 300 feet per day on Charter Spectrum WR14 in Clatskanie, and 20,000 feet of conduit through rock and cobble in El Dorado County.
Power, gas and communications
Electrical and power bores, gas bores and fiber optic and communication bores, from short residential runs to crossings of several hundred feet.
Road, driveway and freeway crossings
Crossings under traffic without open cut, coordinated with the jurisdiction and the traffic control plan.
Product and method
HDPE, fusible PVC and steel by HDD, pipe reaming and slip-lining, with fusion and pullback planned to the product manufacturer's limits.
Specialized drilling equipment and support
Multiple directional drills of all sizes, from 9,000 to 250,000 pounds of pullback, and rock drills from 30,000 to 250,000 pounds, including Ditch Witch all terrain rigs from the JT100 through the 100AT with wireline and walkover guidance. Vacuum trucks and trailers, water trucks and mud reclaimers, drill support trucks and reel trailers travel with the rig, so bore mud is vacuumed, hauled and disposed of under permit and the right of way is left clean.
Entry and exit pits, vault placement and restoration are planned with each bore, and the engineering group carries bore profiles, utility locates, permits and as-builts. The drilling fleet is part of Cannon's 600+ pieces of owned equipment.
Bores that define the capability
| Project | Location | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Charter Spectrum WR14 | Clatskanie, Oregon | 20 bores, 5,362 feet bored in rock at 300 feet per day |
| Pump Station 4 force main emergency replacement | City of Aberdeen, Washington | 600 foot river crossing in 12 inch HDPE |
| CenturyLink route N.446204 | El Dorado County, California | 20,000 feet of conduit through rock and cobble |
| GlassRoots CA299 | Weaverville, California | 4,290 feet of conduit drilled in bores of 200 to 425 feet |
| Intermountain Infrastructure Group | Quincy to Spokane, Washington | 195 mile long haul route, 1,032,035 feet bored and plowed, 825 vaults |
| Department of Defense fiber backbone through CACI | Fort Greely, Fort Wainwright and JBER, Alaska | 19,000 feet directional drilled within a 40+ mile route |
The drill crews at work
Rigs, reamers and crossings from the Kalama drill team and the Downing Diversified crews, as they appeared in the company newsletter.
Drilling that minimizes disruption above ground
- Utility locates, potholing and vacuum excavation to Common Ground Alliance best practice and the Gold Shovel Standard before the rig turns.
- Bore planning to the product and the formation, with guidance logged and as-built on every shot.
- Frac-out monitoring and containment on crossings, under the project's permits and Cannon's environmental practices.
- Job briefing before each task, stop work authority for every employee and the full program on the safety page.
- Bore mud vacuumed, hauled and disposed of under permit; restoration to the jurisdiction's standard.
- Washington L&I experience factor of 0.6947, effective January 1, 2026.
Have a crossing that has to be drilled?
Send the profile, the product and the ground. Cannon will come back with the rig, the crew and the plan.