Where Projects Gain Time, Safety, and Control
Underground electrical work has always been a race against weather, manpower, and schedule creep. Traditional cast-in-place (CIP) duct banks made sense when labor was cheap and deadlines were flexible. That era is gone.
Today’s data center, industrial, and infrastructure programs demand precision — and predictability. The contrast between field-built and precast systems isn’t theoretical anymore; it’s visible on every site where both methods have been used.
The Traditional Way: Labor-Heavy, Weather-Dependent, and Slow to Move
A cast-in-place duct bank is built from scratch in the trench. Crews excavate, shore, lay conduit, tie rebar, set forms, and pour concrete. Then they wait — for inspections, for curing, for weather. Every one of those steps adds exposure, coordination, and cost.
Typical sequence:
- Excavate and shore trench.
- Place and secure conduits (3–5 tiers).
- Tie rebar cages and spacer frames.
- Build and brace side forms.
- Schedule ready-mix delivery.
- Pour, vibrate, and finish concrete.
- Strip forms
- Wait 3–7 days for cure before backfill.
Even with a good crew, production often averages 100–200 linear feet per day. When you add inspections, weather holds, and cure time, a 1,000-foot run can stretch past three weeks.
On one east coast job, the GC logged 10 to 12 tradespeople per duct bank crew, working in tight trenches. The project lost four full days to rain delays, then another week waiting for the ground to dry before inspection.
The Precast Shift: Parallel Production and One-Day Installation
Precast duct banks flip the sequence. DBO builds each section under roof — conduits, rebar, concrete, and cure — before the trench even opens. When the site is ready, trucks deliver finished modules that set like infrastructure blocks.
Simplified sequence:
- Excavate and prep bedding.
- Set precast sections with the excavator using the safety guide pins for alignment.
- Backfill immediately.
Installation speeds jump to 400–600 linear feet per day with a crew of 4–5 people. There’s no formwork, no in-trench concrete, and no waiting on cure.
Field Example – One electrical contractor client Mid-West
During a regional utility expansion, crews installed DBO’s precast duct banks through a month of unstable weather. While nearby cast-in-place crews sat idle waiting for dry ground, the precast team kept setting sections directly after rain. The trench opened, sections dropped, backfill followed. Zero weather delays.
Field Example – Data Center Campus – East Coast
On a hyperscale build in northern Virginia, multiple duct bank corridors fed generator yards and switchgear. Using precast cut installation time by nearly 50% over the cast-in-place baseline. Fewer electricians were needed in the trench, freeing manpower for equipment terminations and testing. The owner hit energization milestones ahead of plan — in an environment where every day equates to megawatts online.
Safety: The Hidden Cost of Cast-In-Place
Every additional hour spent in a trench increases risk — cave-ins, equipment strikes, slips, or falls. Traditional duct banks require hours of rebar tying, conduit gluing, and finishing inside confined spaces.
OSHA’s 2022 data showed a record high in trench fatalities, most during small civil and electrical scopes. The connection is clear: extended time below grade equals exposure. Precast eliminates that exposure.
Crews set sections from the surface, often never entering the trench. The total time the excavation stays open drops by more than half, and so does the safety risk.
Weather and Curing: The Silent Schedule Killers
Weather delays are baked into the cast-in-place method. Concrete only pours when the ground and forecast allow. That’s where the gap between old and new construction methods becomes obvious.
At DBO, we pour indoors under controlled conditions — 4,000 to 10,000 psi concrete, thermally verified, load-tested to your jobsite requirements. By the time sections ship, they’re cured, inspected, and ready to go. Rain doesn’t slow the job. Neither does winter.
The same goes for labor. Skilled electricians are harder to find every year, and underground work consumes them faster than any other task. By moving that labor offsite into a controlled environment, we let field crews focus on energization, not encasement. That’s how contractors stay productive without adding headcount.
Labor and Logistics: Doing More with the Crew You Already Have
The skilled-labor shortage isn’t theory — it’s today’s constraint. Cast-in-place duct banks consume electricians and laborers who are already overbooked. Each run needs hours of layout, conduit work, and inspection.
DBO’s approach lets contractors reassign that talent where it produces value: terminations, commissioning, above-grade systems. Crews that once tied rebar can now set modules by machine in a fraction of the time.
On a recent industrial project, the electrical contractor’s productivity log showed 40% fewer field hours on underground scope after switching to precast with identical final geometry and electrical performance.
Comparing the Methods
| Factor | Cast-in-Place | Precast (DBO System) |
| Installation Rate | 100–200 ft/day | 400–600 ft/day |
| Crew Size | 10–12 workers | 4–5 workers |
| Cure Time | 3–7 days | None (factory-cured) |
| Weather Impact | High – delays frequent | Minimal – install in wet or cold |
| Trench Exposure | Extended (multiple days) | Reduced (hours) |
| Quality Control | Variable – field built | Controlled – plant verified |
| Safety Risk | High (open trenches for long periods, larger crews) | Low (short controlled install window, small crew) |
Efficiency by Design
Precast duct banks don’t just save time; they remove uncertainty.
- Parallel workflows: while the trench is being cut, production is already running.
- Controlled quality: every section built with fixtures and verified thermal concrete.
- Predictable outcomes: no lost days, no cure variables, no rework.
The result is consistent — fewer people, less risk, faster trench turnover, and installations that stay ahead of critical path milestones.
Why the Industry Is Moving Our Way
Every year, more owners and GCs ask the same question at project kickoff: “Why are we still pouring these in the field?” The answer used to be “that’s just how it’s done.” Now, it’s “we don’t have to.” DBO’s model eliminates the bottlenecks that have plagued underground scopes for decades — curing, weather, labor stacking, inspection backlogs — by manufacturing precision underground systems the same way other trades prefab switchgear, skids, and control panels.
We’re modernizing electrical infrastructure the way it should have been built decades ago: turning field-built work into engineered, repeatable systems.
From Field Constraint to Controlled Process
Every duct bank you’ve ever poured had one thing in common: it depended on the weather, the crew, and the clock. Every DBO duct bank has one thing in common too: it doesn’t.
We’ve removed the uncertainty, shortened the schedule, and made underground work behave like the rest of modern construction — predictable, measurable, and safe. That’s not theory. That’s what we do every day.
