Field Notes
Case Study: Electrical Conduit Boring at Hobby Lobby Headquarters, Oklahoma City
By Trinity Boring Solutions · Yukon, Oklahoma · 5.0★ from 49 reviews
Some job sites forgive mistakes. The main entrance of a corporate headquarters – with employee traffic, finished landscaping, and zero appetite for downtime – is not one of them. Here is how we installed a package of electrical conduit bores at the Hobby Lobby headquarters campus in Oklahoma City without opening a single trench across the entrance.
The job: four directional bores totaling roughly 650+ feet at the Hobby Lobby headquarters lobby entrance in Oklahoma City – four 1-inch electric conduits plus a 2-inch PVC electric line – installed with zero trenching, zero closure of the entrance, and no disturbance to finished hardscape or landscaping.
The Challenge: Live Corporate Entrance, No Room for Open Cut
The electrical scope called for new power runs beneath the headquarters lobby entrance – the kind of path that would have meant saw-cutting finished concrete, tearing out landscaping, and routing employee foot traffic around an open trench for days. Open-cut was never a realistic option here. This is exactly the situation commercial directional boring exists for.
The Approach: Four Clean Shots Under the Entrance
We planned four separate bore paths – including runs of 100, 210, and 260 feet – with entry and exit points tucked away from the entrance itself. After 811 locates and daylighting the marked crossings, each pilot bore was steered under the entrance corridor, reamed, and the conduit pulled back the same day it was drilled. The four 1-inch electric conduits and the 2-inch PVC line went in without the building ever losing its front door. Multiple conduits in planned, parallel paths is a pattern we use constantly – see multiple utilities in one bore.
The Result
Every run landed on target. The electricians got their conduit exactly where the prints called for it, facilities kept their entrance open, and there was no restoration line item – no concrete patchback, no re-sod, no irrigation repair. On finished commercial property, what you do not have to fix afterward is where boring pays for itself; our boring vs trenching cost comparison shows the math.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions customers ask about jobs like this one.
Can directional boring install conduit under a building entrance without closing it?
Yes. The rig sets up away from the entrance, the bore runs beneath the surface, and the conduit is pulled back underground – foot traffic and access above stay open the entire time. That was the exact approach used at the Hobby Lobby headquarters entrance in Oklahoma City.
How many conduits can be installed at a commercial site in one mobilization?
As many as the design calls for. This project placed four 1-inch electric conduits and a 2-inch PVC electric line across four bores – including 100, 210, and 260 foot runs – in a single mobilization.
Does boring on finished commercial property damage landscaping or hardscape?
No. Entry and exit pits are small and placed in agreed locations; everything between them is untouched. There was no concrete cutting, re-sodding, or irrigation repair on this project.
Have a commercial site that cannot afford an open trench?
Trinity Boring Solutions is open 24 hours for directional boring across Oklahoma. 9102 NW Expressway, Yukon, OK 73099.
Hobby Lobby HQ Conduit Bores — Field Photos
