Midyear 2006 finds the HDD industry to be in reasonably good health. Expanding fiber optic deployment, much of it in developed urban and residential areas where HDD offers important benefits, should keep compact drilling equipment busy for the immediate future. HDD is well accepted in the electrical and gas industries and drill rigs of various sizes are active on a variety of re-placement and new construction projects. Demand for big rigs on pipeline projects is up. Use of directional drilling to construct water system extensions and replace segments of old pipe continues to grow. While growth in this area proceeds at a slow pace, advances in tracking equipment continues to facilitate improvements in making on-grade bores for gravity-flow sewers. Several pipe manufacturers and associates are promoting the use of directional drilling to install their products.
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