IN Brief:
- TRACTO UK has launched the GRUNDOMAT 45 Extra Short mole for compact and restricted-access sites.
- The 800mm unit weighs 8kg and is designed to reduce digging, preparation, and reinstatement work.
- The launch reflects demand for smaller, specialist equipment suited to constrained urban utilities work.
TRACTO UK has introduced the GRUNDOMAT 45 Extra Short mole, a compact trenchless installation tool designed for restricted-access sites and shorter bores.
The new mole measures 800mm long and weighs 8kg. TRACTO says the shorter unit is intended to reduce digging and preparation time, cut remediation and reinstatement costs, limit damage to surrounding areas, and improve handling on compact sites.
The unit delivers 580 impacts and is being targeted at groundworkers, contractors, and utility installers. The first batch of 40 units is now in stock, with TRACTO reporting interest from contractors working in spaces where standard mole lengths create access or handling limitations.
The launch adds a more compact option to the trenchless installation market. Utility installation and repair work is increasingly taking place in congested urban environments, around existing buried services, limited footways, live roads, domestic access points, and constrained commercial sites. Reducing excavation can cut programme time, reinstatement cost, spoil movement, traffic management, and surface disruption.
Trenchless tools have long been used to avoid open-cut excavation, but the market is becoming more focused on equipment that can work in smaller launch pits and awkward locations. Short service connections, drainage links, fibre routes, localised utility crossings, and repair works often need equipment that can be positioned quickly without opening large areas of ground.
The product follows a wider shift in plant specification. IN Site recently covered JCB’s AI-based INTELLISENSE safety system winning Hire Industry Product of the Year, highlighting the movement towards equipment designed around safety, usability, access, and site-specific productivity. The GRUNDOMAT 45 Extra Short sits at a different end of the equipment market, but it reflects the same focus on solving specific site constraints.
Compact tools can also support stronger risk control. Smaller launch excavations reduce spoil volumes, lower reinstatement exposure, and can simplify traffic and pedestrian management. In urban work, those costs can escalate quickly, particularly where permits, parking suspensions, road restrictions, and utility coordination are involved.
Manual handling is another factor. An 8kg unit still requires safe systems of work, but reduced weight and compact length can make mobilisation easier for small teams. That can help on sites involving narrow passages, steps, gardens, basements, restricted roadside access, and small commercial premises.
Not every plant development arrives through electrification, autonomy, telematics, or AI. Many productivity gains come from equipment that reduces the amount of excavation, shortens preparation time, and limits reinstatement. Those gains are particularly valuable where contractors are working under framework rates, emergency response requirements, customer-service penalties, or tight access agreements.
Urban utilities work is likely to remain a strong market for compact trenchless equipment. Water, drainage, electricity, gas, telecoms, EV charging, and heat-network infrastructure all require intervention below crowded streets and properties. Network upgrades and new connections will continue to increase pressure on contractors to reduce surface disruption while maintaining accuracy and reliability.
The GRUNDOMAT 45 Extra Short is a targeted addition rather than a broad fleet replacement. Its role is in jobs where standard equipment is physically awkward, where the bore is short, and where extra excavation would add more cost than value. On constrained sites, that narrower use case may be exactly where the productivity gain sits.
