Utility Trenching in Allentown, PA

Utility trenching is the digging that lets a water service, sewer lateral, gas line or electric conduit get from the street or the panel to where it is needed. In Allentown, most of these jobs are on older homes, where a clay or cast iron sewer lateral has cracked or filled with roots, or a water service has started to leak. Our part is the excavation: locating, digging to depth, shoring or sloping where needed, bedding, backfilling and restoring the surface. Licensed plumbers and the utilities handle the connections.

Sewer laterals

A lateral that backs up or tests poorly on camera often has to be dug up and replaced. HomeAdvisor lists sewer line replacement at $60 to $250 per linear foot and trenching at $4 to $12 per linear foot, with most sewer jobs between $1,388 and $5,323. If the lateral runs under the street, the work becomes a street opening that needs a City of Allentown Public Works permit, with the application due at least three work days ahead.

Water service lines

A leaking water service is worth fixing quickly on limestone ground. When Allentown's North 10th Street sinkhole opened in 2011, the city's public works director said a broken water line may have caused it or been caused by it. Water running steadily into the ground can wash fines out of soil above voids in the rock. HomeAdvisor puts water main replacement from the street to the house at $50 to $150 per linear foot typically, with dig-and-replace trenching running $50 to $250 per foot.

Conduit and other lines

We also dig for underground electric to garages and outbuildings, generator gas lines, irrigation mains and data conduit. Depth and bedding follow what the electrician, gas installer or code requires, and warning tape goes in above the line where specified.

Trenching in the street

Allentown's code calls for street excavations to be open cut, not undercut, and backfilled with approved crushed aggregate that is compacted. The permittee keeps up the patch for twelve months, and where several cuts are close together the city can require milling and overlay. We include that restoration in the quote, so the price covers the whole job and not just the hole.

Safety

Trenches deeper than about five feet need protection under federal OSHA rules, either sloping, benching or a trench box. We set up for the depth before anyone works in the trench and keep spoil back from the edge.