Locate → Verify → Pilot → Ream → Pullback. Five phases, four gates, one rule: the next phase does not start until the gate behind it is closed and recorded.
The Chain
this doc fills the reserved slot in Playbook §3 — "HDD / Bore Procedure SOP"
BEFORE THE DRILL ROLLSyard gate
→
VERIFY ON SITEcrossing sheet signed
→
PILOTrod by rod
→
REAM+ pullback prep in parallel
→
PULLBACKproduct in, undamaged
Phase 0 · The Yard Gate
BEFORE THE DRILL ROLLS
EXISTING DOCS
This phase is already written — it lives in the Field Recipe Book (NU-OPS-002) role chapters and the Work Order Ready Gate. This card assembles it into one sequence. Nothing here is new standard.
The sequence
1
Night before: TOMORROW post by 5:00 PM with the locate-status line — "Locates: CLEAR / WAITING ON ___." Crew Lead builds the load plan: bits, reamers, rod, reels, conduit, water and mud for the soil. NU-GOV-004 §1.0 · Recipe Book Chs. 5–6
2
Locator's ticket gate: every 811 ticket valid with a positive response from EVERY utility. One missing response = that path is not cleared, no exceptions. Screenshots into the WO folder. Wand self-test on a known line at the yard. Recipe Book Ch. 4
3
Operator's machine gate: cold walk-around, rod inspection (bent, worn, cracked shoulders, bad threads), vise jaws and breakout, mud products matched to the soil on the plan, beacon + spare battery. Fault = red-tag. HDD Operator book Cards 3–4 · Recipe Book Ch. 3
4
Supervisor's yard walk: every machine fueled, on trailer, with the right tooling — "a crew that leaves without the right reamer loses half a day." JSA held and signed before any crew leaves. Recipe Book Ch. 5
5
The read-back: Crew Lead repeats to the Supervisor — site, today's units, ticket number, marks fresh on the ground. "That sentence is the contract for the day." Recipe Book Ch. 6
The gate
No clean locates = the crew does not leave the gate. Work Order READY GATE checked: 811 positive-responded · permits in hand · materials loaded · JSA signed (the WO form labels this JHA).
Proof: ticket screenshots in the WO folder · ROLLING post with truck photo
Phase 1 · On Site · The Locator Owns This Phase
VERIFY — EVERY LOCATE ON THE GROUND
EXISTING DOCS
The verify recipe is written in Recipe Book Ch. 4 ("On Site, Before the Rig Moves") and HDD Operator Card 7 ("Clear the Path — this is where strikes get prevented, not at the controls"). This card is the one-page version.
The sequence
1
Park off the marks. Photograph the whole path before work — including the locate marks on the ground. Cones out before tools out. JSA — every person names a hazard and signs.
2
Walk the WHOLE bore path, entry to exit, prints in hand. Match every paint mark to the ticket and the plan. Look for what paint misses: meters, pedestals, valve lids, drop wires, fresh trench scars. "A gas meter with no yellow paint nearby is a red flag, not a detail."
3
Every crossing potholed — exposed and visual. Utility seen with your own eyes, depth measured from grade to TOP, tape photographed IN the hole before any backfill. Tolerance zone: within 24 inches of a mark, hand tools only. Day 1-2 book Card 4, Rule 2
4
Shoot each crossing with your own wand. "Paint can be feet off — your reading counts." Fill the Crossing Sheet as you walk: one line per crossing — utility, measured depth, clearance needed, photo ref.
5
Cross-bore check said out loud: sewer laterals are on no ticket and every house has one — walk the houses and point at where each lateral runs.
6
Brief the Operator on every crossing. He repeats the list back and SIGNS the Crossing Sheet — date and time.
The gate — this signature moves the rig
The rig does not move until the Operator has signed the Crossing Sheet. Anything unmarked, unclear, or off-plan: the rig stays parked — the Locator's stop-work call, and nobody overrules it. Marks faded or mismatched = re-mark, not a guess.
Proof: signed Crossing Sheet (rides with the Bore Log into the DFR) · pothole depth photos with tape · path photos in the WO folder
Phase 2 · Drilling Out · Operator + Locator, One Conversation
PILOT — WHAT WE WATCH, EVERY ROD
EXISTING DOCS
Written in HDD Operator Cards 5–13 and Recipe Book Chs. 3–4. This card is the watch list.
The gate into this phase — the shot card
The bore go/no-go card is completed ON SITE, right after the Operator signs the Crossing Sheet — its first line is "locates valid with positive responses; crossing sheet signed by operator," so it cannot be honestly filled at the yard. Then: soil expectation set from potholes, tooling and mud plan matched · bend radius checked against the product, rod count +10% confirmed · water sourced, exit pit assigned, spoils plan set, traffic control planned.
Proof: shot-card photo in the WO folder
Setup — before the first rod
1
Rig level, staked and anchored. Entry angle set for the job. Exit pit, spoil containment, and where the mud goes — decided before the head is in the ground. HDD Cards 5–6
2
Strike protection EVERY bore: ground rod driven, insulating mat placed, dielectric gloves staged, strike alert armed. HDD Card 2
3
Mud mixed for TODAY'S soil and tested with the Marsh funnel against the mix chart. "Wrong mud is how you lose returns and frac out into someone's yard." Beacon tested — depth and pitch read off the housing before it goes in the ground. Recipe Book Ch. 3
4
Agree the words before the first rod: how clock position is called, what "hold" means, what "stop" means, hand signals for noise, radio-failure plan. HDD Card 8
The rod loop — what we're looking for
1
Fluid on before the head moves. Every time.
2
The Locator shoots every rod — depth and pitch — before the next rod is pushed. "No locate, no push." The Locator's hand writes the rod on the Bore Log as it happens; the Operator confirms before pushing the next.
3
Depth and pitch against the plan, rod by rod. Small correction now beats a big one later. Off plan gets reported, not fixed quietly.
4
Returns watched at the entry pit every rod. Know the normal pump pressure — a spike is telling you something. Returns stop = STOP; that's the frac-out play, not a push-through.
5
At every crossing: slow down. Confirm with the Locator, eyes on the potholed hole while the head passes — every time. Bore depth and utility depth logged side by side, locator screen photographed. Feel a touch = stop, don't back out, don't push through, call.
The plays, by name (already written — recite-able, not re-invented here): Frac-out play (HDD Card 13) · Lost returns (Card 15) · Stuck rod — never crank torque (Card 15) · Strike sequence (Card 16 — electric AND gas, and the right moves are opposites: electric = operator stays ON the machine, everyone else 35 feet back, feet together; gas = engines OFF, no ignition sources, everyone upwind and uphill, call 911 from a distance) · Cross-bore camera check (Card 17) · Sonde battery / interference / shallow crossing (Recipe Book if/then cards).
The gate out of this phase
Head out the exit pit with a rod-by-rod log — every rod written the moment it was pushed, depth entry and photo at every crossing, zero unreported contact. The exit pit stands empty from two rods out — head located before punch-out, rotation and fluid OFF and the Operator confirms it, before any hand touches the head. Park the head at a known spot, write the rod count.
Until today the library said one sentence about reaming (HDD Card 14, item 1). This card is the new standard — numbers marked are proposed and wait on Adam.
The ream gate — before the reamer turns
1
First question — does this bore even need a ream? If the pilot hole is already 1.5× the product bundle OD (industry default — confirm as Nova's number), there is NO ream: skip to Phase 4, connect the train, pull behind the pilot. When the hole does need to grow: big jumps get steps, but a small jump the rig pulls without loading up is ONE pass — the last pass at final size is always the sizing pass, and every extra pass is another trip that works the hole. Don't take trips you don't need.
2
Match the reamer to the ground — the one on the truck because the load plan said so, not whatever's closest. Inspect it: cutters, jets open, threads.
3
Swivel inspected NOW, not at pullback — bearing spins free by hand, no play, grease it. A seized swivel discovered at pullback is a half-day lost.
4
Mud volume for the bigger hole: a reamed hole takes multiples of the pilot's mud. Water supply confirmed for the whole ream + pull BEFORE starting — running dry mid-ream is how holes collapse. volumes per rig card, to be set.
5
Exit side rigged: rods added behind the reamer as it comes back — the string stays in the hole; who racks, who wrenches, named before the reamer turns. No hands on the string, ever, until the Operator confirms rotation AND pull are stopped. The exit hand calls it in the agreed words, gets the confirmation back, then wrenches — and the Operator does not re-engage until the exit hand calls clear. Same exchange, every rod.
During the ream — the second front
6
Steady rotation and pull — let the reamer cut; forcing it packs the hole. Returns watched at BOTH pits. Pressure is a conversation here too — a spike means stop and find out why.
7
While the reamer works, the pull gets built. The rest of the crew stages Phase 4: product strung and fused, train parts laid out, rollers set. The ream and the pull prep finish together — that is the whole point.
8
Ream recorded in the Bore Log NOTES + totals: reamer size, passes, mud behavior. proposed new fields — see Open Items.
The gate out of this phase
Hole at final size, mud returns healthy, AND the pullback checklist below is 100% checked. If the product isn't ready when the reamer lands, the ream was run wrong — the two fronts finish together.
Proof: Bore Log notes (reamer size + passes) · staged-product photo in the WO folder
Phase 4 · Pulling Pipe · No Lag
PULLBACK — THE HOLE WAITS FOR NOBODY
NEW STANDARD
THE NO-LAG RULE: an open hole is dying from the moment the reamer lands — it swells, it slumps, it takes on water. Every avoidable stop is staged out of the pull BEFORE the pull starts. The pull stops for a problem, never for a lack of readiness.
Ready checklist — built DURING the ream, checked before the train connects
1
Product strung out full length behind the exit pit on rollers/skates — never dragged on the ground, never pulled around a corner it can't bend. Bend radius already checked at go/no-go.
2
Joints done and inspected before the pull — couplers made up to standard (B-COUPLERS badge work). No joint gets made "while the pull waits." Both duct ends sealed before the train connects — the pull head seals the nose; cap or tape the tail. Open duct = mud in the duct = a failed mandrel.
3
Pull head installed and seated; breakaway installed and set to RELEASE below the product's maximum allowable pull force (and above the expected pull load — per-product numbers are Open Item #3). It breaks so the product doesn't — when the hole binds, the breakaway lets go first. No breakaway, no pull.
4
Swivel between reamer and pull head — the drill string spins, the product must not.
5
Reel/pull setup per the B-REEL badge standard where a reel feeds the pull: aligned, brake set, payoff direction right.
6
The path is clear end to end — TC set if the string crosses road or sidewalk, one person at each pit, the words agreed (same protocol as the pilot: "hold" and "stop" mean the same thing at both ends).
The connection train
DRILL STRINGrods coming back→REAMERfinal size→SWIVELspins free — checked in Phase 3→BREAKAWAYrated to the product→PULL HEADseated on the product→PRODUCTon rollers, joints made
During the pull
7
Fluid stays on the whole pullback.
8
Pull pressure is a conversation, not a number to beat. A spike means stop and find out why — it never means pull harder. (HDD Card 14 — unchanged.)
9
Somebody watches the product side the whole time — feeding clean, not snagging, not scuffing at the pit edge. Nobody stands in line with a loaded pull.
10
Rod count called as they come back — everyone knows how far out the product is, nobody is surprised by the pull head. The last three rods come back slow, and the entry pit stays clear until the reamer and pull head are out and the string is dead.
The gate out of this phase — done looks like
Product in, undamaged, proven: mandrel/pull-tape through the duct, couplers solid, no kinks. Depth verified at required points with tape + stationing photos (QC walk items 1–2). Leave the tail long — HDPE stretches under the pull and relaxes over the next hours; cut to print length on the QC walk, not off the back of the pull.
Proof: "product installed" photo before backfill (required DURING photo) · QC walk checklist · footage into the DFR — "footage not in the DFR does not get billed, ever"
Every Gate Has a Record
a gate that produces no record is a suggestion — NU-GOV-000
Phase
The gate
The record that proves it
0 · Before rolling
No clean locates = nobody leaves
Ticket screenshots · WO Ready Gate · ROLLING post
1 · Verify
Rig doesn't move unsigned
Crossing Sheet — Locator signs, Operator countersigns with time
2 · Pilot
Shot card closed on site, then: no locate, no push
Shot-card photo · Bore Log rod by rod · crossing photos · totals block
Product-installed photo · QC walk · DFR footage → invoice
Open Items on Adam
#1
The ream numbers — confirm 1.5× hole-to-product ratio as Nova's rule, and set mud volume guidance per rig card.
#2
Ream/pullback records — approve adding Bore Log fields (reamer size, passes, pull start/end, product condition at exit) and two new Field Quality app cards (Ream gate, Pullback ready) for Steve's Softr build.
#3
Pull-force limits — max pull per product type (% of pipe rating). Until set, the rule stays "a spike means stop."
#4
Owner-call threshold on a strike — the HDD book says call Adam on ANY contact including a nick; the Recipe Book and Daily Loop say Owner is called on a strike WITH DAMAGE. Two docs, two answers — pick one and the library gets aligned.
#5
Register + library alignment — NU-FLD-220 proposed; fills the "HDD / Bore Procedure SOP" slot reserved in Playbook §3. On approval: add to the NU-GOV-000 §4.3 table, point the Master Index's "HDD/bore procedure — Done" line here, and close the Recipe Book Ch. 4 "[confirm per state]" blank with the 24-inch GA tolerance zone.
#6
Minimum crossing clearance — the Crossing Sheet's "clearance needed" column has no company number; today each crew decides. Set one (commonly 12–24 in vertical for small utilities; gas per the operator's requirements).