Across the Flint Hills of northcentral Kansas, miles of tall grass prairie roll toward the horizon with little to interrupt them. Gravel roads trace through the open landscape between Junction City and Manhattan, Kan., where the wind moves freely across the plains and, during burn season, smoke can settle over the right of way for miles.
For Boretech Utility Services, what waited below that landscape would prove far less predictable.
Ditch Witch photo
The team had been tasked with installing three 2-in. conduits along a 40,000-ft. section of AT&T long lines fiber. Much of the route followed rural roads with little surrounding infrastructure, but beneath the surface, nearly 29,000 ft. of the installation crossed through solid limestone broken by dense veins of black flint.
The crews could see the change almost immediately.
In limestone, the cuttings returning from the bore were white. Then the returns would turn black. The drill had reached flint, and the pace of the work changed with it.
With four drills spread across miles of active right of way, a 42-in. installation depth to maintain and ground conditions changing beneath them, Boretech's crews had to continuously adjust their drilling strategy to keep the project moving.
Betting On Bore
Boretech Utility Services started with one drill, two trusted employees and a major leap of faith.
When owner Tyler Sumner launched the company, he sold off his personal recreational vehicles and equipment to invest in a Ditch Witch JT20 after spending a decade working for another contractor in the St. Louis area.
“I had some good roots under my feet, a strong customer base and enough experience to know I could make it work,” Sumner said. “Once I made the decision to go out on my own, I was all in.”
What started as a three-person operation expanded into a 20-person company running multiple drills, vacuum excavators and support equipment across Missouri and Kansas. As the fleet and team grew, so did the size and complexity of the projects Boretech could take on.
“I thought I'd probably spend the first couple of years running a drill every day,” Sumner said. “Instead, the company took off a lot faster than I expected.”
As the company expanded, Boretech took on more rock drilling work across the Midwest.
“There aren't many contractors that want to handle both rock and dirt work,” Sumner said. “We built this company around being able to take on the tough jobs and adapt to whatever ground conditions we run into.”
Finding Way Through Flint Hills
Ditch Witch photo
The AT&T long lines installation was part of a larger nationwide fiber backbone build feeding the company's communications network. Boretech's section crossed through the Flint Hills region outside Junction City and Manhattan, following mostly rural gravel roads selected to avoid congestion and future utility conflicts.
To maintain production, Boretech mobilized four drills to the project, including three Ditch Witch AT30s and an AT32 to handle the rock sections while Ditch Witch JT drills advanced through softer ground.
The operation evolved as crews moved east to west across the route. Dirt drills moved ahead first, identifying formation changes while excavation crews dug test pits every few hundred feet to confirm rock depth. When conditions became too hard or too deep for conventional drilling, the all-terrain drills moved in behind them.
The installation depth added another layer of difficulty. AT&T required the conduit to be buried 42 in. deep, significantly deeper than the 30-in. depth Boretech typically encounters on similar installations. That meant deeper excavations, larger tie-in pits and more time spent breaking through solid rock before crews could begin pulling product.
In one sequence during the installation, two Ditch Witch AT drills worked toward the same pit from opposite directions before eventually meeting in the same bore path underground.
“We were communicating constantly across the crews,” Sumner said. “If one drill hit a bad vein at a certain depth, everybody adjusted.”
As crews advanced along different sections of the route, drills and support trucks had to stay coordinated across the sprawling installation.
At peak production, Boretech completed roughly 5,000 ft. in one week using two drills operating in solid rock.
“When a plan comes together exactly the way it's supposed to in solid rock, that's a pretty rewarding feeling,” Sumner said.
Reading Rock
At first glance, the route looked manageable. Open country, minimal traffic and long stretches of uninterrupted right of way. Underground conditions quickly proved more challenging than crews initially expected.
“It was limestone with pockets of black flint,” Sumner said. “We hadn't really seen rock like that before.”
Crews quickly noticed the difference in drilling returns. Limestone cuttings normally came back white. When crews hit the flint seams, the returns turned black and drilling speeds slowed from just minutes per rod to nearly 45 minutes in some sections.
“When those cuttings started coming back black, you knew you were into the flint,” Sumner said. “That's when things really slowed down and you had to start adjusting to what the ground was giving you.”
On the Flint Hills project, Boretech adjusted drilling fluid programs constantly depending on formation density and cuttings return. The heavier flint material required different fluid mixes to keep cuttings moving and prevent issues downhole.
By the end of the installation, Boretech had gone through 12 AT drill bits and nearly 10 pallets of drilling fluid additives.
“We really didn't have any major downtime out there,” Sumner said. “The equipment performed the way we needed it to, and that makes a huge difference on a project this size.”
Taking On Tougher Ground
Ditch Witch photo
Boretech's move into all-terrain drilling started shortly after the company launched. An early opportunity involving significant rock work pushed Sumner to purchase a used Ditch Witch AT drill from North Dakota so the crew could self-perform the entire project instead of subcontracting portions of the work.
That decision changed the direction of the company. Today, all-terrain drilling has become a major part of Boretech's work.
On the Flint Hills installation, Subsite locating equipment, including the Marksman+, tracked the bore path as crews worked through changing ground conditions.
Behind the scenes, Orange Intel, Ditch Witch's telematics and machine monitoring platform, provided another view into the equipment operating in the field. The system automatically sends fault codes directly to management whenever issues appear on the JT21 and AT32 drills.
“I usually know about an issue before the guys even call me,” Sumner said. “That kind of machine monitoring helps us stay ahead of problems instead of reacting to them.”
Maintaining momentum on long rock bores often comes down to solving small problems before they turn into larger ones. As dense flint seams slowed production across the Flint Hills project, visibility into the bore path and machine performance gave Boretech more information to work with as crews adjusted to changing conditions.
Call Before Company
For Sumner, the relationship behind the equipment matters just as much as the machines themselves.
Before launching Boretech, Sumner spent years working with Mark Jones of Ditch Witch Worx, the local Ditch Witch dealership, while managing equipment for his previous employer. Jones worked with Sumner on equipment purchases, service needs and field support during that time.
When Sumner made the decision to start Boretech, Jones was one of the first calls he made.
“Starting a business is stressful enough,” Sumner said. “Having people you trust behind the equipment makes a big difference when you're trying to grow a company.”
Jones helped Boretech navigate financing and equipment acquisition during the company's early days.
Today, Boretech's shop sits less than 20 minutes from Ditch Witch Worx, and Sumner remains in regular contact with the dealership's parts and service teams.
“We're up there two or three times a week,” he said.
The relationship does not stop at the dealership doors. When crews are working through active projects, Sumner often communicates with dealership personnel after hours to track down tooling and wear items or troubleshoot equipment issues that come up in the field.
“When you're in the middle of a project moving this fast, having support that answers the phone and helps keep you moving matters,” Sumner said.
Proof Beneath Prairie
By the time Boretech completed the final section, much of the evidence of the work had already begun to disappear.
Beneath it, nearly 40,000 ft. of new conduit remained.
Getting it there had required Boretech to work through almost 29,000 ft. of limestone and black flint, adjust drilling fluid programs as formations changed and coordinate multiple drills working different sections of the route. At peak production, two drills advanced roughly 5,000 ft. through solid rock in a single week.
The project also reflected just how far Boretech had traveled in four years. The company Sumner started was now taking on a project that demanded multiple crews, rock drilling equipment and the ability to adapt when conditions underground changed without warning.
The Flint Hills tested tooling, production and drilling strategy from one end of the route to the other. Some stretches moved quickly. Others announced themselves when white limestone cuttings suddenly came back black.
Boretech kept drilling through both.
