Crossing Solutions · Highways
We drill pipes and duct bundles under live motorways and major roads without digging up the carriageway. Crossings designed to National Highways CD 622, certified before construction, with the traffic running above.
Highway crossings
Drilling a crossing under a carriageway keeps the road open and the traffic moving. We launch from a pit in the verge on one side, steer the bore beneath the road at the design depth, and receive it on the far side, so there is no trench across the carriageway and no full closure. From single service crossings to 42 crossings under a live motorway, it is work we do all over the country.
On National Highways roads we design the crossing to CD 622, the current geotechnical-risk standard for trenchless crossings, calculating the settlement and pipe loading in-house and getting it certified before construction. We install multi-way duct bundles in a single bore to keep the number of crossings down, drill through rock where the road sits on it, and steer with guided walkover or a downhole gyro depending on what surface access the road allows. Over the years we have crossed the M1, M3, M4, M5, M6, M8, M25, M40, M56, M62, M74, M180 and the A1(M). In our home patch around Teesside and the North East we have drilled under the major A-roads, the A19, A66, A171, A174 and A689, countless times.
Selected projects
A selection of real carriageway crossings. We've also drilled M1 four-way bundles for UKPS, A194 multi-duct crossings, and the A38 rail-and-road crossing at Bodmin through hard slate.
8 crossings · multi-way 110mm · housing development
Eight multi-way 110mm duct crossings under the A689 in Hartlepool, enabling a Persimmon housing development. We worked for Esh as principal contractor.
11 no multi-way 125mm crossings · CD 622 design
Eleven multi-way 125mm duct crossings under the A19 at Cold Hesledon, each with the full CD 622 settlement design and National Highways certification. We worked for MSF as principal contractor, reporting to Sir Robert McAlpine as the managing agent for the A19, with National Highways the overall client.
42 of 42 multi-duct crossings · live M5 · three rigs
Every one of 42 cross-carriageway duct installations drilled under the live M5, with three rigs and all crossings guided on walkover and Drill-To to save the cost of downhole steering. Settlement was undetectable.
Read the case study →2 drills · 120m each · 3 × 200mm + 1 × 125mm · Brownline gyro
Two 120m four-way duct crossings under the M25, run about 10m apart, serving the CyrusOne LON1 data centre at Slough. Designed and installed by us and steered with a Brownline gyro tool for fully remote drilling where there was no safe surface access.
2 installations · ~160m each · 3 × 180mm ducts · through rock
Two service diversions drilled under the M56 at Thorley Lane Bridge, around 160m each: a 33kV route of two 180mm ducts and an 11kV route of a single 180mm duct, steered through rock. The existing bridge deck carried the live services, so we diverted them under the bridge before it could be lifted out and the new deck dropped in.
8 crossings · ~10 days · single & multi-way ducts
Eight crossings installed in about ten days for a new M40 motorway service station, a mix of single-way and multi-way duct installations drilled under the main M40 carriageway as well as the roundabout. We worked for Carillion as principal contractor, with the Highways Agency, now National Highways, the client.
40+ crossings · single to 6-way 110mm · roundabouts & dual carriageways
More than 40 moled and drilled crossings of roundabouts, slip roads and dual carriageways for a high-tech street-lighting scheme on Middlesbrough's busiest road, a mix of single ducts and multi-way bundles up to six-way.
Questions answered
No. A carriageway crossing is drilled from a pit in the verge on each side, so the road stays open above. On the M5 smart-motorway scheme we drilled all 42 crossings under the live motorway with the traffic running. Where a job needs limited traffic management, for example to walk the line for guidance, that is usually a fraction of the cost and disruption of digging the road up.
CD 622 "Managing geotechnical risk" is the current National Highways standard (DMRB Volume 4) that covers trenchless crossings under their roads, up to 2m diameter. It replaced the old HA 120/08 trenchless guidance. We design the settlement and pipe-loading for the crossing to CD 622 in-house, and the crossing is certified by National Highways before construction, alongside the Section 61 street-works consents. See our Design & CAD page for what the package includes.
Yes. Plenty of major roads sit on or are cut into rock. The M56 diversions at Thorley Lane Bridge were drilled through rock as part of a bridge replacement. We steer through rock with an All Terrain dual-pipe system, or a down-the-hole air hammer in the hardest ground. See our rock directional drilling page.
We routinely install multi-way duct bundles in a single bore, four-way, five-way, six-way and eight-way 125mm and 180mm bundles are all jobs we have done under live carriageways. That keeps the number of crossings, and the disruption, down. For a big duct route we will advise whether to bundle them or split them across separate bores.
It is designed out before we drill. The bore is set deep enough below the road, kept tight to the design line, and the predicted surface movement is calculated to CD 622 and certified within National Highways limits. On the M5 the surface settlement was undetectable. Where required we run a baseline survey and monitor the carriageway before, during and after against agreed trigger levels.
Related services
The steered method behind most carriageway crossings, installing ducts and pipes under the road in one length.
View service →In-house CD 622 settlement and pipe-loading design, certified for National Highways before construction.
View service →Case study: 42 of 42 cross-carriageway duct installations drilled under the live M5 for Balfour Beatty Vinci.
View service →Send us the crossing drawings and levels. We'll design the CD 622 settlement package, tell you honestly whether it can be drilled, and give you a budget price.