Unpredictable ground conditions in Southern California's High Desert are part of the job for Advantage Directional Drilling, which has built its reputation in terrain where precision matters and there is no margin for error. It is also where one bore beneath a bridge at Deep Creek tested not only equipment and planning, but the relationships that hold a job together when the signal disappears.

"This wasn't a job you could just drill and hope," said Johnny Torres, superintendent and driller for Advantage Directional Drilling. "We had to be dead on."

A company shaped by trust and repetition

Advantage Directional Drilling is a family story first. Torres' father, Ralph Torres, founded the company in 2004 with a Ditch Witch JT520 and a willingness to tackle challenging work. In the beginning, the company was already running on long days, careful planning and a relationship with their local dealership, Ditch Witch West.

Today, Advantage operates primarily across California's High Desert and into Arizona, focusing on gas and fibre work where bore data is demanded and documented. In California utility work, bore paths are logged, GPS coordinates are verified and contractors are trusted to deliver exactly what they record.

Lean crews and orange iron

Advantage keeps its crews intentionally small. A typical setup is three people, including an operator, a locator and a third contractor training to do both.

"The point is flexibility and accountability," Torres said. "Everyone learns the whole job, not just one piece of it. That's how you stay sharp."

Advantage Directional Drilling runs exclusively on Ditch Witch machines and Subsite locating systems, tools they have trusted since the beginning. Over the years, Advantage has worked its way from its first JT520 to larger drills, eventually landing on a JT30 that has logged countless hours through some of the toughest ground in California's High Desert.

That loyalty runs deeper than brand preference, and for Advantage Directional Drilling, reliability and accuracy are not luxuries; they are the plan. Subsite locating systems, including the 750 and 752 models and, more recently, the Marksman+ locator, have become essential to the crew's success.

For Advantage, the trust built into its equipment lineup is not about convenience; it is about confidence. Every rod and every bore depend on tools that perform as hard as the people using them.

"When the signal drops or the job hinges on a split-second call, uptime and quick support can mean the difference between moving forward and losing a day," Torres said.

Under Deep Creek

That belief was put to work beneath the surface of Deep Creek, one of only two creeks in the US that flows south to north. The job appeared straightforward on paper. Relocate a gas line 25ft to make room for a new bridge. But hidden within the bridge's bones was a different story. Shifting soils and buried reinforcement soon made it clear the work would demand far more than a routine solution.

Originally, the bore was planned as two 400ft shots meeting in the middle. Once calculations were complete, it became clear that the depth required to clear the bridge structure would make a tie-in unsafe. The soil was sugar sand and the hole could collapse. Digging deep to connect would have introduced risk the crew could not justify.

Rather than risk it, Advantage committed to a continuous drill-and-pull operation. No potholing. No shortcuts.

The entry pit was dug 10ft deep and shored, roughly 10ft by 10ft, while Torres checked that everything was built correctly. From there, he planned a 2% grade down, targeting nearly 20ft of depth under the bridge while keeping the line level enough to pull 8in steel.

When preparation meets interference

Before the first rod went in the ground, Torres asked Andy Taminich from Ditch Witch West to come out and walk the bore with him. Together, they reviewed the path, discussed locator frequencies and talked through the final 100ft beneath the bridge approach where the road sloped steeply and rock and bridge reinforcement were expected.

The first 700ft went smoothly. Then the bore reached the bridge and at nearly 20ft deep, with about 100ft left to drill, the locator signal disappeared.

Rebar and unknown reinforcement within the bridge structure caused interference that made pitch, angle and depth unreliable. After losing the signal, Torres could feel the job narrowing around him. It was not simply a technical issue. It was a moment where the wrong call could create a chain reaction. Coming up shallow would have jeopardised the pipe. Coming up in the wrong place would have ended the project altogether.

"In California, accuracy is non-negotiable," Torres said. "Bore data is trusted, and mistakes carry consequences far beyond a single project. This was the critical part of the bore, and we had to do it right."

Signal lost. Resolve intact

Typically, the next traditional step would be wireline locating, a proven method but one that would have slowed the job at a moment when time mattered most.

"Wireline would've solved it, sure," Torres said. "But time kills margins. What we needed was the kind of support where you can make a call, have someone show up, walk the job with you and help you find a better way."

Torres reached back out to Ditch Witch West. Taminich returned and worked alongside Torres while contacting Subsite support. Together, they tinkered through available frequencies, knowing interference behaves differently depending on depth and surrounding material.

They tried 46. Then 21. Then 15. At first, nothing. Then the signal began to come back, faint at first, then more readable, like a pulse returning after a long pause. When they switched to 3.5, the locator stabilised and the job sputtered back to life.

"As soon as we changed, we had pitch and angle again," Torres said. "That's when we knew we could keep moving."

Depth was still imperfect but workable. Torres relied on grade calculations and the discipline. Hold the bore steady, go slow, confirm what you can confirm and keep the work honest. When the drill head finally emerged, it was where it needed to be. "It was one of those good days," Torres added.

Answers beneath the bridge

Only after the bore was complete did the full picture come into focus. The crew learned that the interference was not just from typical rebar. It was from heavy bridge reinforcement, a dense grid of quarter-inch steel filled with fibreglass. Together, it created an underground shield, a dense layer of metal that sent every frequency skimming away.

"The signal was ricocheting in every direction and scattered every frequency we tried," Torres said. "Once we saw what was beneath, it all made sense."

When partnership is part of the plan

The Deep Creek bore took nearly two weeks from punch hole to pullback. Pre-reaming was slow as sugar sand made hole retention difficult, and maintaining stability required constant attention. By the time the pipe was in place, the crew had worked through 12 pallets of drilling fluid, each one part of the effort to protect the line and complete the job the right way.

That same level of readiness does not stop at a single crossing. It is built into how Advantage operates and into the relationships the company depends on every day. Halfway through the Deep Creek bore, Torres realised 600ft of drill pipe would not be enough to finish the 800ft run. One call to the Ditch Witch dealership set the response in motion, and another 300ft of drill pipe arrived the same day.

That pattern repeated on another project, when an 8in downhole tool raised concerns after contact with rock. Torres once again called Taminich.

"Andy tracked down the correct tooling in Texas and had it delivered on a Saturday," Torres said. "No questions asked."

For Torres, that kind of support changes how decisions are made in the field. It removes hesitation at critical moments and allows the crew to focus on execution rather than contingency planning, knowing help is already on the way.

Finding certainty underground

Out in the High Desert, where the soil changes its character with every few feet and forgotten infrastructure sleeps beneath the surface, precision depends on more than technology. When the signal falls silent, it is experience, preparation and the people who still pick up the phone that bring the work back to life.

That same philosophy drives Torres every day. Long before a drill bit ever touches the ground, he is already building certainty where uncertainty rules. He calibrates his locator every morning, without exception. No shortcuts. No assumptions.

"I never take depth for granted," he said. "Accuracy can save lives."

Since adding the Subsite Marksman+ to the lineup, losing signal no longer means guessing or hoping for the best. It means adjusting frequencies, verifying the information in front of him and continuing forward with confidence, knowing that both his skill and Ditch Witch dealer support is there when it is needed.