I rented a mole the other day, to push a water line under 32' of county rd, and 15' feet under a fiber optic. We got the job done, but the mole took a dive and was about 3' deeper then what we where shooting for. Which added 3 hours to the job. This was my own personal project so the $450 dollars and the 2 days that it took us to excavate push the pipe and back fill and compact the rd shoulder. I feel like we came out ahead, of the $4900 dollar quote that a directional driller priced me. Just the same though if someone tried to hire me to do this. I think I would tell them to hire the drill. With the two days of time I would bill plus the potential of having to dig up the road anyways if I lose the mole. I don't think I could offer the client value for there money. I am just wondering what others think about approaching these things
We use moles quite often still, there are many times a mole is quicker than a drill, especially short shots that are easy without rock or if you can't get a d.drill set up due to not enough working space for it. In Mo. It is illegal to use them on any state blacktop or highway however.
They don't like it when you hump the road around here also, they like the boring machines because of less chance of the hump, we have a six inch still and we know the location of the other two smaller ones, but it is not worth trying to get them back at this time. It's been at least six years since we used are big one, we sub that work now when needed.