What I remember was the entire ruckus and disruption we would cause whenever we went into an older area. People would be complaining about not being able to drive up to their homes or if the roads were completely blocked off, they would complain that they were unable to bring their groceries in, etc.

From a contractor's point of view, we really had no other option. We replaced the pipe in the manner it was called for. In 1994, I attended my first No-Dig Conference in Dallas, Texas. From that moment on, I did not want to dig anymore … hence the new attraction to Trenchless Technology.

It seemed that it was really the only way to go. The conventional replacement method will always have its place, because there are distribution systems that are under designed, too shallow or are beyond the point of salvation. I believe that we must exhaust all the trenchless options before we consider the using the conventional replacement methods.

Trenchless technologies give today's engineer the option to execute a lot more work within a shorter period of time, but the greatest advantage is the minimal disruption to the citizens and the environment. In trenchless projects there is a lot less disposal of excavated materials, less heavy equipment required that will cause pollution (visual, noise and air) and less disruption to the traffic. There are a lot of issues that can be discussed, such as social costs that are involved in the conventional methods that are rarely factored in when comparing the two methods.