5G and Utilities

Benchmark Construction utilizes horizontal directional boring technologies to bore under parking lots, roads, highways, foundations, railroad tracks, airport runways and other structures, all without the costly expense and inconvenience of open excavation and trenching.

Directional boring, which is also referred to as directional drilling, allows for steering of the drill head. Crews can change the direction, depth and negotiate around existing underground assets such as water,  sewer, electrical, telephone, cable TV, fiber-optics, and gas. Once the bore hole has been made, Benchmark can pull back HDPE, Schedule 40/80 PVC, rigid conduit, water lines, cables, phone and fiber-optics.

Utilities Trenching, such as oil, gas, water, sewerage, electricity and telecommunications, are all transported long distances below ground where terrain can vary from soil to hard rock and environments can encompass urban areas, highways or cross country, on land or offshore.

Traditional methods of utility trenching include excavating, hammering or blasting, but these make it difficult to avoid disrupting the ground or buildings close to the trench opening, and also different processes are required for different stratum.

When businesses or homeowners need to extend their existing utilities or install electrical conduit through heavily congested areas, horizontal directional drilling is usually their best option. Referred to as “trenchless technology”, HDD drilling utilizes special machines that install underground utilities without impacting the surface area or disrupting traffic flow. Once crews have cleaned up the work location, it will look like they were never there!

Directional boring (horizontal drilling) is a very efficient method of getting into an area, setting up and commencing operations. Open trenching, depending on depth and local ordinances, can require additional labor, planning, supervision, safety precautions, and restoration.

Urban areas such as water crossings, high traffic areas, pedestrian traffic, railroad spurs, and airports are ideal for directional drilling. Rural areas with low vehicle and pedestrian traffic tend to be better suited for open trenching.

We help you build new towers and cell sites for 5G, 4G and emergency response networks. We work closely with companies to provide Trenching and Directional Boring to the towers and locations. Specialized teams deploy small cells and Cloud-RAN (radio access networks) in city centers to bring your 5G services to market quickly.

Upgrading to 5G networks

U.S. wireless providers are racing to upgrade their cellular networks to 5G. New 5G networks will provide users a host of benefits as they:

• Deliver more bandwidth
• Reduce latency (less delay, quicker response)
• Increase capacity, supporting 500 times more devices
• Enable the Internet of Things (IoT).

5G will support augmented reality, virtual reality, gaming, autonomous cars, robots, smart homes, smart offices and more.

Building small cells and C-RAN

We help customers build small-cell sites and connect them to cloud radio access networks (C-RANs). Our specialized crews are deploying 5G now in city centers.

Delivering projects large and small

We help connect the world for customers with projects such as:

• Small-cell and macro-cell sites
• In-building small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS)
• Cloud RAN
• New site builds
• New tower erection
• Generator installations
• Horizontal and Direction Boring to sites
• Grading and location prep
• Concrete or Aggregate foundations