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Harsh winter weather had taken a toll on eight miles of aerial fiber optic cable in Washington state鈥檚 Cascade Mountains. The failing cable needed to be replaced and then located underground to protect it from the elements.

And that was the easy part for general contractor Robinson Brothers and team member Apex Directional Drilling.

The cable route snaked up and down steep hills covered with thick woods. It crossed canyons that often contained streams and lakes. The solid and fractured basalt located along the route, material that Apex would have to drill through, ranged in hardness from 20,000 psi to 50,000 psi.

鈥淚t was clear at the beginning that these would be extremely challenging bores to complete,鈥� Mike Lachner, Apex鈥檚 president, said in his company鈥檚 TopProjects nomination submittal.

In order to meet the task it faced, Apex came up with a unique solution. A common approach would have been to use a large-scale machine with a mud rotor, which would have required large amounts of support equipment and high quantities of drilling fluid. Instead, Apex based its bid costs on using a smaller, 50-ton pullback drill unit with a dual-pipe mechanical drilling system.

But even that simpler machine required a complicated set-up.

Roads had to be constructed in order to be able to move equipment to work sites on a D8 Caterpillar dozer. Launch pads had to be built and maintained. Supplies for crews had to be hauled in and out with a 6×6 ATV.

Despite those challenges and weather conditions that included snow, heavy winds and freezing temperatures, the Apex team stayed focused all the way through a successful project.

鈥淔rom the first through completion of the last bore, we worked through winter conditions,鈥� Lachner said.