Dive Brief:

• A new kind of trenching tool promises to cut energy use in trenching machines while allowing users to cut through concrete, pavement and frozen ground.
• The new device, called the Rolling Wedge, is being sold by Philippi-Hagenbuch, which makes truck bodies for off-highway hauling.
• The inventor, LeRoy Hagenbuch, said the device is based on the fact that it takes a fifth as much energy to pull something apart as it does to overpower it by compression.

Dive Insight:

Contractors may find their work seasons extended if they can trench without having to wait for ground to thaw in cold areas and do not have to send jackhammers ahead to break up very hard materials before a trencher can work.