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Real drillers. Owner-operated. On the mark.

RMDT Utilities is the horizontal directional drilling contractor built for the underground scope of utility-scale solar. Eight years, bi-coastal, and accountable from the first bore pit to the last as-built.

RMDT Utilities is an owner-operated horizontal directional drilling contractor for utility-scale solar. We bore the road, rail, water, and interconnection crossings that gate energization for EPCs, developers, and GCs. Bi-coastal, with West-coast operations and a Central New York presence, eight years in business, and more than 500,000 feet in the ground.

8
Years in business
500K+
Feet bored
100+
Bores on schedule
0.86
EMR
// THE COMPANY BEHIND THE BORE

Eight years pointed at one thing: clean crossings, on schedule

RMDT Utilities started as a crew that drilled, not a balance sheet that financed a rig. Eight years in, that has not changed. We own our rigs, we run our own people, and the drillers planning your crossings are the same ones who stand over the bore when the fluid is moving and the pressures are climbing. There is no layer between the company that signs the contract and the crew that has to make the shot.

We are bi-coastal by design. Our operations are rooted on the West coast, where utility-scale solar moves fastest and the permitting, agency, and crossing requirements are some of the most demanding in the country. We also carry a Central New York presence, which lets us support work and mobilization across the eastern build-out. Wherever the field is, the standard is the same: a written plan before we drill, owner-operated equipment, and a crew that does not leave a crossing until it is proofed and documented.

Real drillers, not a financed single rig

The difference on an HDD job is rarely the machine. It is whether the people running it actually understand what is happening underground. We do this work because we know mud, not because we bought a drill.

  • Mud dynamics. Drilling fluid is the job. We build the program to the formation, manage annular pressure and returns, and read the ground for the early signs of an inadvertent return before it ever reaches the surface.
  • Soil reactivity. Reactive clays, flowing sands, cobble, and fractured rock each behave differently when you put fluid against them. We plan the fluid chemistry and the bore profile for the soil we are actually in, not the soil we wish we had.
  • Bore planning. Entry and exit angles, depth of cover, radius of curvature, and the survey plan are worked out before mobilization. A bore that is planned right rarely has a bad day in the field.

A contractor that financed one drill rig and hired around it learns these things on your job. We brought them with us.

How that expertise keeps a bore off the headlines

The bores that make the news are the ones that frac out into a wetland, surface in a riverbed, or hit an existing utility nobody located. None of those are bad luck. They are planning failures that showed up in the field.

We keep your crossing out of that story by doing the work up front. Every sensitive bore gets a written inadvertent-return plan: a geotech read, a drilling-fluid program matched to the ground, real-time monitoring, containment staged before we drill, and a contingency in writing for what we do if pressures move the wrong way. We pothole and daylight existing utilities with vacuum excavation before we cross them, so we know what is there instead of hoping. The result is a quiet bore, the kind that goes in, gets proofed, and never becomes a phone call to an agency.

What we value

We are easy to describe because we are pointed at a short list.

  • Schedule certainty. The bore is on the critical path. Our entire model, owner-operated crews, one team across the whole underground scope, prequal already cleared, exists so that the underground never becomes the line item that moves your COD.
  • Safety. A 0.86 EMR and zero OSHA recordables over three years are not a marketing line. They are how we keep a crew working and a job on schedule. Prequalified in ISN and Avetta, with $5M / $2M coverage, additional-insured and COI ready.
  • Clean crossings. A crossing is done when it is in, proofed, and documented to hold up at inspection, not when the drill is pulled. We hand you an as-built you can stand behind.

That is the company. Real drillers, owner-operated equipment, and a written plan behind every bore. We always hit the mark.

// WHAT SETS US APART

Why EPCs hand us the underground

Six things a procurement team can verify before a single bore is planned.

01

Owner-operated rigs and crews

We own our equipment and run our own people. No subcontractor interface, no demob-remob gaps between crossings, no finger-pointing when a date is at stake. One accountable team from the first bore pit to the last as-built.

02

Real drilling expertise

Mud dynamics, soil reactivity, and bore planning are the job, not the learning curve. The drillers who plan your crossings are the ones who run them, so the field decisions get made by people who have seen that ground before.

03

Prequal already cleared

Prequalified in ISN and Avetta, Class A licensed in CA, OR, and WA, with $5M / $2M insurance, additional-insured and COI ready and scalable on request. Your gate is closed before kickoff, not during it.

04

A written frac-out plan

Before we drill, you get it in writing: geotech read, drilling-fluid program, monitoring, containment, and contingency. Inadvertent-return risk is managed on paper before it can become a problem on a sensitive crossing.

05

One crew across the whole scope

Collection crossings, road, rail, and water crossings, and the interconnection bore run under one schedule with no handoffs. We also pothole and daylight with vacuum excavation, so the seams that hide slack are simply not there.

06

A safety record that holds up

0.86 EMR and zero OSHA recordables over three years. Safety is how we keep a crew working and a field on schedule, which is exactly what your COD depends on.

// CREWS AND IRON

The people and equipment we put on your field

Owner-operated rigs, support fleet, and the crews who run them. Click any image to open it full size.

RMDT crew and horizontal directional drilling rig set up at a bore on a utility-scale solar site Owner-operated directional drilling rig staged on a solar field crossing RMDT drilling equipment and crew working an HDD crossing in the field
// GO DEEPER

See how the standard shows up on the job

// STANDARDS & REFERENCES

Standards and references

Our crossings are planned and executed to the safety standards and trenchless practices the industry relies on, and our prequalification is verified by the systems EPCs already trust. Useful references:

  • OSHA — the federal authority whose workplace safety standards our crews follow; our recordable record is measured against them.
  • NASTT — the North American Society for Trenchless Technology, whose good-practice guidance informs how we plan and execute horizontal directional drilling crossings.
  • ISNetworld (ISN) — the contractor prequalification platform where our safety, insurance, and compliance records are maintained and verified.
  • Avetta — the supply-chain prequalification network through which clients can confirm our qualification status.
// LET'S TALK

Put the underground in the hands of real drillers

Send us the field. We will tell you exactly how we take the bore off your critical path.

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