What are Launch and Receive Pits?

Launch and Receive Pits are a type of ‘trenchless technology’ used in methods like horizontal directional drilling (HDD), pipe jacking, and microtunnelling. They allow for the installation or repair of underground pipes, ducts, and cables, without the need for much larger, longer, and disruptive excavations.

Instead, two excavated pits are constructed and shored on either side of a project. A Launch Pit (also called an Entry, Entrance, or Drive Pit) is a trench at the beginning of these trenchless projects. A drilling or boring machine is put into the Launch Pit and set up to start the tunnelling process.

A Receive Pit (also called an Exit, Retrieval, or Receival Pit) is the trench at the end of a trenchless project where the drilling or boring equipment being used emerges after completing the installation or repair works.

Shoring boxes, as well as Trench Sheets, Sheet Piles, and hydraulic bracing are the most common solutions used in these types of excavations due to their depth and tight working room. The term ‘trenchless’ is somewhat misleading, as trenches are used, but only at the start and end of the construction work, instead of the entire way.

Why Use a Launch and Receive Pit?

Launch and Receive Pits are often the preferred method over open-cut excavations when working across busy roadways or railroads, under urban streets, and in environmentally sensitive areas like lakes and rivers, near buildings.

They can help to minimise potential damage to nearby structures, reduce disruptions to traffic and pedestrians by not completely closing a road, and lower construction costs for a project by eliminating the need to dig an extremely large trench.

For more information about our complete range of shoring services and equipment, visit your nearest branch, email [email protected], or call our friendly team of experts at 1800 UR HIRE.