The patchworked and pitted roads that are left behind by cable-laying companies could become a thing of the past if Terry Cohn, managing director of Powermole International Ltd, gets his way. His company, which is based in Sittingbourne, Kent, has developed a mechanical mole which he says can lay cables and pipes without having to […]
The patchworked and pitted roads that are left behind by cable-laying companies could become a thing of the past if Terry Cohn, managing director of Powermole International Ltd, gets his way. His company, which is based in Sittingbourne, Kent, has developed a mechanical mole which he says can lay cables and pipes without having to dig up the street. The machines are pneumatically-powered, and work by compacting the earth around the sides of the device. The company claims that it can handle any type of earth, short of solid rock. The mole can travel only in a straight line, but can construct a 100 yard tunnel in a single stretch, moving at up to six feet per minute. The cable can either be fed through after the hole has been created, or it can be towed through by the mole itself. According to Cohn, the machines can be sold for as little as UKP2,000, rising to UKP20,000 for larger models, because they have only seven working parts. He said that the cost of laying a cable with one of the devices is only around a quarter of the cost for traditional techniques. There is absolutely no doubt that trenching is a thing of the past, he said. British Gas Plc has already bought some of the devices, and Cohn said most of the country’s other utilities were also planning to use them.
