About AirSpade

During the mid 1960s, Brooklyn Union Gas Company pioneered the use of an air lance, air compressor, and vacuum truck as a better way to dig and reduce the costs associated with approximately 30,000 annual street openings made for gas distribution pipe repair. This experimentation led Dravo Corporation of Pittsburgh, PA to develop a specialized air tool for digging, later named "AirSpade," for utility use. In 1985, an independent company, Briggs Technology, Inc. was spun out of Dravo to commercialize this new methodology.