Ditch Witch all-terrain drills handle high-pressure hard rock bore

Critical fibre bores are carefully mapped and planned in advance. Assessments are done to anticipate ground conditions on the chosen route, equipment is prepared, and possible scenarios are considered. But even with the best planning, there is always potential for a surprise once the first drill moves — that's when preparation has to meet reality.

Team Fishel, a multi-state provider of utility engineering, construction, and network installation services, had to adapt to unexpected hard rock along busy Route 15 in Frederick County, Maryland, when they were tasked with installing the final 14 miles of fibre needed to connect four major data centres. There were two fibre routes to complete on a timeline that left little room for the unexpected.

Most fibre builds allow for some flexibility, but this one did not, and if the project was delayed by more than a few weeks, a large portion of the contract's value would be erased. If 30 days late, the entire job would lose money.

"This is a project that normally takes two to three years. We had ten months," says Connor Bass, area manager for Team Fishel. "We had to get very granular in scheduling."

Four data centres were waiting on the two fibre routes, and every day without connectivity meant millions of dollars in idle processing capacity.

Months before the first drill moved into position along Route 15, Team Fishel had mapped out an ambitious path forward. Initial assessments pointed to changing soil conditions that were expected to improve as crews moved north. Instead, the first bores began revealing a very different situation. A nearly continuous vein of granite stretched along the route, while narrow rights-of-way and strict traffic limitations confined crews to the shoulder of the busy highway. Lane closures were not an option.

From that point forward, Team Fishel would need to rethink its drilling strategy, scale its fleet, and lean on Ditch Witch equipment and dealer support as each new stretch revealed more complications.

A new drilling strategy for continuous hard rock

As crews encountered a continuous rock vein that shadowed nearly the entire route, progress slowed to as little as 8 to 12 feet per day in many areas, which was made worse by the need to ream each bore multiple times to reach final diameters, compounding production delays.

"Some days you mark the rod in the morning and hope it has been moved by lunch," Bass says.

Team Fishel knew they needed a new approach if they were going to finish the job on time. They doubled the drill count, bringing in crews from across the country and rotating mechanics through night shifts to keep equipment ready. Even the tooling plan had to be rebuilt to handle non-stop granite.

Those moves bought time, but the fundamental challenge remained: finding equipment capable of performing consistently and reliably in solid rock and within extremely limited job site space.

As the strategy evolved, drill selection quickly became a defining factor. Given the tight proximity to Route 15, larger rigs simply could not fit, and many rock-drilling systems lacked the durability to successfully push through the continuous rock conditions.

The team needed a directional drill with two seemingly contradictory strengths. It has to be compact enough to operate within space-restricted rights-of-way, but powerful enough to pull heavy reamers through solid rock. The Ditch Witch AT32 directional drill delivered both.

"It was the only machine compact enough to navigate the tight job site and yet powerful enough to pull a 24-inch reamer through granite," Bass says.

The All-Terrain system was essential to maintaining progress, providing stable torque and control through challenging ground conditions. Conventional methods, including mud motors and air hammers, would have degraded rapidly under continuous rock loads. However, the AT32 with its direct mechanical drive maintained steady power and minimized fluid reliance, which was a crucial advantage when pushing through granite while operating on a tight timeline and compact job site.

When the extent of the granite became clear, Team Fishel expanded its fleet of AT32 drills and upgraded tooling to accommodate. They worked closely with Ditch Witch ACE, their local dealer, to pre-stock pumps, motors, swivels, and wear components, ensuring swift replacements and zero downtime.

The AT32 became an indispensable workhorse from the first bore to the final pullback.

Ditch Witch dealer knows the drill

With more drills in the ground and little room for downtime, Team Fishel needed support that could keep pace with them. ACE stationed a technician on-site almost every day to handle troubleshooting, monitor performance alerts through the Orange Intel telematics system, fine-tune mud mixes, and coordinate replacement parts. That proactive support prevented minor issues from escalating into days of downtime.

"Most issues were fixed before management ever heard about them. That level of field communication is rare," Bass says.

To keep production steady, Ditch Witch stocked more than $1 million in critical parts specifically for this project. In several cases, Ditch Witch and Team Fishel worked together to adapt components for extreme wear conditions.

"When something broke, the Ditch Witch team knew it needed to be there immediately," says Bass. "They did not ask what week it could be fixed, they asked where they needed to be in the next hour."

With more than 25 drills operating, that level of responsiveness and repair speed helped keep an already complicated operation from veering off course.

At peak activity, 160 Team Fishel Teammates from 15 states worked along the corridor, supported by more than 80 trucks moving through the site each day. Managing that level of activity in a confined, high-traffic environment required precise coordination, careful planning, and constant communication.

"Route 15 is an extremely difficult place to work, and the margin for error is zero," Bass says.

Maintaining safe traffic flow while advancing the project added another layer of complexity. With so many rigs operating simultaneously, maintenance and logistics required disciplined scheduling and execution. Every aspect of the operation had to be tightly coordinated to keep crews productive and the project on track.

Collaboration supports early project completion

Additional drills, upgraded tooling, and close collaboration with the Ditch Witch team were the turning point for the project. Crews who had spent days watching rods move inches at a time found a new rhythm, learning the patterns in the rock and the spots that slowed production. Reamer swaps became smoother, a bore was completed ahead of schedule, and service cycles stayed on time.

Production accelerated week by week, until the final segment was set, and 14 miles of duct bank were finished. A project that typically spans several years had been completed in just eight months, the result of a team that trusted the process and equipment that held up.

"I couldn't be prouder of our team," says Bass. "Dr. Joe C., the field PM, and his team put in the work, trusted the plan, and kept pushing. All the credit goes to them. The partnership with Ditch Witch and the reliability of those drills made a huge difference. The equipment held up, the support never stopped, and our crews delivered."

The challenges that defined the job never went away. Granite continued nearly the length of the route, crews remained confined to the narrow shoulder of an active highway, and the schedule left little room for a bad day to become a bad week. What changed was how Team Fishel responded, learning from each stretch and adjusting the people, equipment, and strategy around what the job demanded.

"Anyone can build fibre in clean dirt," Bass says. "We take the work others often walk away from." 

This article originally appeared in the October 2026 issue of Heavy Equipment Guide.