Dive summary:

• Contractors laying a sewer line when service reached an already-built subdivision in Olathe, Kan., had to make gravity work in a setting where homes had been built and the land rolled, and that meant some lines were going to have to be way too deep for trenching – as far down as 45 feet in some places.
• Beemer Construction of Blue Springs, Mo., brought in EJM Pipe Services of Lino LAkes, Minn., when it was evident that this could not be an all-open-cut job, and EJM brought Vermeer's Axis model guided-boring equipment.
• The borer uses a laser and video system on the drill head to keep the operator updated in real time about the direction and angle of the pilot bore, which Beemer expected to be difficult when rock began 2 feet below the surface and offered hard rock mingled with random shale layers, all designed to send a drill bit off course at every opportunity.

From the article:

“I like to compare drilling through hard rock and shale to hand-sawing through a knot in lumber,” said Lynn Miki, a project foreman with EJM Pipe Services. ...