HDD Contractor Coverage
General Liability
The foundation policy for any directional boring contractor — commercial general liability covering third-party bodily injury and property damage across your bore sites, operations, and completed work. It's what every GC and utility asks to see before you mobilize, and the base every other coverage builds on.
What's covered
Coverage included with General Liability
What general liability does for a bore contractor
Commercial general liability (CGL) responds when a third party — a member of the public, a property owner, another trade on site — is injured, or their property is damaged, because of your operations. On a directional drilling job that means damage to roads, driveways, landscaping, or surface structures from your rig and pits, injury to a passerby around an open bore pit, or a property-damage claim from your completed installation. The policy pays your legal defense and any resulting settlement or judgment up to its limits. It's the coverage your contracts require and the base layer of an HDD program — but on its own it leaves the exposures that define trenchless work, like frac-outs and utility strikes, uncovered.
Premises, operations, and completed work
Your general liability covers both ongoing operations and completed operations. Ongoing operations is the exposure while the job is active — the rig running, the pits open, fluid and equipment on site, the public moving around your work zone. Completed operations covers claims that surface after you've demobilized — a settlement issue over a bore path, surface damage that appears later. Both matter for a bore contractor because the consequences of underground work aren't always visible the day you finish. We make sure your CGL is written so both phases are properly covered for the kind of work you actually do.
Additional insureds and the COI that lets you mobilize
In this trade you don't start without paperwork. General contractors, utilities, municipalities, and owners require that they be named as additional insureds on your general liability, usually with primary-and-noncontributory wording and a waiver of subrogation, and they want a compliant certificate of insurance before your rig rolls onto the site. A missing or non-conforming COI keeps your crew standing around. We issue additional-insured endorsements and certificates fast, in the exact form your contracts demand, so an insurance technicality never costs you a mobilization.
Where general liability stops — the HDD-specific gaps
This is the critical part for a bore contractor: standard general liability excludes the two exposures most central to directional drilling. Pollution — including a frac-out, the inadvertent return of drilling fluid — is excluded and needs contractors pollution liability. Damage to existing utilities and the care, custody, and control of property you're working on are typically excluded or sublimited and need specific below-grade and CCC handling. CGL also excludes your own equipment (inland marine) and your employees (workers' comp). Reading a CGL as full coverage is the most expensive mistake an HDD contractor can make. We build the CGL as the base and add pollution, underground-utility, equipment, and the rest so the exclusions are answered.
Why Contractors Choice Agency
We insure trenchless work the way it actually runs.
The HDD and underground-utility-contractor specialty division of Contractors Choice Agency — licensed in all 50 states, covering frac-outs, utility strikes, your iron, and your crew.
We cover the frac-out
An inadvertent return of drilling fluid is the exposure that defines HDD — and standard GL excludes it. We lead with contractors pollution liability so a frac-out is actually covered.
We answer the utility strike
Hitting an existing line is the claim every bore contractor fears. We close the below-grade and care-custody-control gaps standard policies leave open.
We insure the iron
Your drill rig, mud system, and locators are the business. We write contractors equipment coverage that protects them on site, in transit, and between jobs.
Specialty markets, fast COIs
We place HDD contractors with carriers that understand trenchless risk — and turn certificates around fast, because a GC won't let you mobilize without one.
Answers
General Liability — FAQs
Straight answers to the questions directional boring contractors ask us most about this coverage.
No — and this is the single most important thing for a bore contractor to understand. A frac-out (an inadvertent return of drilling fluid) is a pollution event, and standard commercial general liability contains a pollution exclusion that removes coverage for it. To cover frac-outs you need contractors pollution liability added to your program. A GL-only policy leaves the signature environmental exposure of directional drilling completely uninsured, which is why we treat pollution liability as essential, not optional.
Only partially, and often not the way you'd assume. General liability may respond to resulting third-party damage, but damage to the existing utility itself frequently runs into care-custody-control and below-grade exclusions that standard policies apply. That's why an HDD program needs specific underground-utility and CCC coverage alongside the GL. We make sure those gaps are closed so a utility strike is covered as the work demands, rather than denied on an exclusion.
A $1 million per-occurrence limit with a $2 million general aggregate is a common baseline, and many GCs, utilities, and municipal contracts require exactly that — sometimes with higher limits or an umbrella for larger telecom and pipeline work. The right number depends on the projects you bid and the contractual requirements you face. We recommend limits based on your actual work and your contracts, and add umbrella/excess layers where the jobs demand it.
Yes — it's routine and almost always required before you can mobilize. General contractors, utilities, municipalities, and owners typically require additional-insured status, often with primary-and-noncontributory wording and a waiver of subrogation. We issue the endorsements and certificates of insurance in the exact form your contracts require, quickly, so a paperwork problem never keeps your crew off the job.
No — your general liability covers third-party injury and property damage, not your own equipment. Drill rigs, mud systems, locators, and tooling are covered under contractors equipment (inland marine) coverage, which protects them against damage and theft on site, in transit, and in storage. We build inland marine alongside your GL so the iron your business runs on is properly protected.
No. GL is necessary but not sufficient. It excludes the exposures most central to directional drilling — frac-outs (pollution), utility strikes and care-custody-control, your equipment, and your employees. A complete HDD program builds GL as the base and adds contractors pollution liability, underground-utility/CCC coverage, contractors equipment, builders risk, commercial auto, workers' comp, and often professional liability. We never sell GL as a standalone solution for this trade.
Yes — third-party property damage from your operations, including surface damage to roads, driveways, and landscaping caused by your rig, pits, and equipment, is a core part of the general liability grant, along with the defense costs. Surface restoration disputes are common on bore jobs, so it's worth making sure your limits and completed-operations coverage are sized for the work. We'll review your typical jobs and structure it accordingly.
Call 844-967-5247 or request a quote online with a description of your operation — what you bore, your rigs, crew size, typical project values, and your contractual requirements. We'll structure general liability as the base of your program and recommend the pollution, underground-utility, equipment, and other coverages an HDD operation needs. Quotes are free and carry no obligation.
Still have questions? Call 844-967-5247
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Other coverages
One frac-out shouldn't be able to sink your business.
Talk to a specialist about pollution, equipment, underground-utility, and the full coverage an HDD operation needs. Free, no-obligation quote — usually same day.
Licensed in all 50 states · Specialty contractor carriers · Mon–Fri 8am–5pm MST (AZ)