Iowa Trenchless delivered three 54-inch casing bores in Cedar Rapids, each requiring custom trenchless techniques to navigate unexpected bedrock while maintaining critical elevation constraints.
Foreman Kyle Spoon and his team — Alex Tapley, Dustin Olson, Jakob Janssen, and James McAtee — completed the first bore in soft ground as anticipated. However, excavation for the second and third bores revealed limestone bedrock directly within the bore path. Because the bores passed beneath box culverts draining into the Cedar River, raising the elevation was not an option.
Iowa Trenchless quickly shifted strategies by mobilizing the appropriate tooling and expertise to drill through bedrock:
- Two crossings were completed using a Robbins 54″ Small Boring Unit (SBU)
- One was equipped with a hard-rock cutterhead
- One used a mixed-ground cutterhead due to clay seams within the rock
The ability to pivot quickly to new geological conditions prevented costly delays and preserved project momentum. The result: seamless bore completions despite highly variable and challenging subsurface environments.
