Underground Construction - June 2019 - 22

EXCLUSIVE: 21st Annual Horizontal Directional Drilling Survey
Robert Carpenter | Editor-in-Chief

HDD Prosperity is Tempered with Challenges
In 2019, horizontal directional drilling
(HDD) is again riding high, based upon
a series of strong markets. However, the
question asked by many is how long will
the robust HDD market last? The better
question, perhaps, is how sustainable
are the aggressive growth patterns of
the fiber, gas distribution, electric and
energy pipelines construction markets?
HDD prosperity is directly tied to all these
markets yet continues to find healthy
niches not even considered in the past.
In 2018, the 2,670 drilling rigs (all
sizes) sold was the most since the fiber
boom days of 2000, when almost 4,000
units were purchased. While, most
likely, HDD will not approach those lofty
levels any time soon, the current rig sale
volumes do demonstrate a strong, diverse
market, and 2019 levels should come close
to, or perhaps even exceed, 2018 levels.
The 21th Annual Underground
Construction HDD Survey reveals the
strength, versatility and growth that the

24.1 24.4 24.3

HDD market has sustained for many years.
This exclusive industry research was conducted during March and April. It surveyed
contractors and some utilities that actively
own and operate HDD units to enable a
statistical portrayal of the market.

Fiber
There is no doubt, especially for the
small- to mid-sized rig markets, that the
reemergence of fiber installations over
the past 10 years as the leading force
in the telecommunications industry
has contributed mightily to the current
boom. The use of HDD technology goes
hand-in-glove with underground telecom
installations. The build-out of fiber-tothe-home, fiber-to-the-premises-fiberto-anywhere-just refuses to slow down.
A wide variety of experts struggle to
definitively predict when the fiber buildout will slow, with guesses ranging from
3 to 7 years.
Just as fiber work paused slightly a couple

of years ago and Google decided it no longer
wanted to be in the construction market,
several major carriers, including AT&T,
finally launched their fiber installation
growth programs, and work quickly ramped
back up. Also, smaller- to mid-size carriers
continue to expand their plants and bring
fiber to communities. Recently, Google has
started showing signs it may reenter the
fiber infrastructure market.
Further, smaller cities are increasingly
building out their own networks, refusing
to wait for a "down-the-road" timeline
from big companies. To top things off,
the next wave of mobile phone service,
5G, is in full force. This is bringing more
construction work for telecom contractors,
most of whom rely heavily upon HDD
as their primary construction tool for
underground installations. And finally,
rural areas are beginning to become active
targets for fiber expansion.
Ironically, it was the lack of fiberto-the-premises which played a pivotal

Primary HDD Markets (% of total)

24.7

2016
19.9 19.9 19.9 19.8

18.0 18.4

18.8

2017

2018

2019*

*Estimated

19.4

15
12.8 12.9 13.2 12.7

12.1
10.2 9.8 9.9

9.0 9.0 8.9
7.8

5
2.2 2.0 2.0 1.9

Telecommunications

Water

JUNE 2019 | UConOnline.com

Gas
distribution

Electric
transmission/
distribution

Oil/gas
transmission

Sewer

Wind/solar

2.0 3.1 3.0 2.7

Other

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Underground Construction - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Underground Construction - June 2019