DIGS Hydrovac supports contractors, utilities, and municipalities with reliable utility daylighting services across Alberta. If your project requires safe confirmation of underground utilities, our team is ready to assist.

Construction workers are repairing a large pothole in a street with a vacuum truck and an excavator against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains and a partly cloudy sky.

Utility Daylighting

Utility daylighting is the process of safely exposing underground utilities to visually confirm their exact location and depth. This is a critical step before excavation, trenching, drilling, or construction work begins near buried infrastructure.

DIGS Hydrovac provides professional utility daylighting services across Alberta using non destructive hydrovac excavation. By using pressurized water and vacuum removal, our crews can carefully uncover utilities without damaging them.

Daylighting is widely used to expose gas lines, electrical conduits, fiber optics, water lines, and sewer services where accuracy is essential.

  • Many underground utilities are not always located exactly where drawings or locates indicate. Relying only on records or surface markings can introduce risk.

    Utility daylighting allows project teams to physically confirm utility position before major ground disturbance begins. This helps prevent utility strikes, injuries, service outages, and costly repairs.

    For many projects, daylighting is part of safe excavation planning and risk management.

  • Utility daylighting is commonly performed before trenching, directional drilling, piling, or foundation work. It is also used when working in congested corridors where multiple utilities are present.

    Contractors, municipalities, and utility owners often request daylighting to verify infrastructure before construction proceeds.

    In urban areas such as Calgary and Edmonton, daylighting is especially valuable due to dense underground networks.

  • Hydrovac daylighting offers a safe and controlled method for exposing utilities. It significantly reduces the chance of damaging lines compared to mechanical digging.

    The process creates smaller, cleaner excavations and limits disturbance to surrounding ground. This reduces restoration work and helps maintain organized job sites.

    Hydrovac daylighting also supports faster decision making by giving project teams accurate information about underground condition