How EasyTech Group Reinvented Hydrovac Shoring with the Strength of an Egg
A Manitoba water-main break, a welder with a hunch about geometry, and a hydrovac truck with no room for a second piece of equipment — the unlikely origin story behind EasyDig, the circular aluminum trench cage now showing up on hydrovac sites across North America.
Aerial view of an EasyDig installation paired with a hydrovac truck. Photo courtesy of EasyTech Infrastructure Group.
EasyTech Infrastructure Group is a Canadian manufacturer that builds the EasyDig modular trench cage — a patented circular shoring system designed specifically for the small, single-point excavations that dominate hydrovac work. Made of half-circle aluminum panels under 50 pounds each, it clamps together by hand to a 1000 psf rating at depths up to 26 feet, eliminating the excavator (and the lawn damage) traditional square shoring usually requires.
EasyDig in action
A real EasyDig set being deployed in the field. Tap the speaker to unmute.
Half-circle aluminum panels, clamped together like a barrel
Traditional trench shoring is built around a steel box — four flat walls meeting at four corners. It is heavy, requires an excavator to place, and concentrates ground pressure on the corners, which is why steel boxes have to be so massive in the first place.
EasyDig flips the geometry. Each set is built from a stack of half-circle aluminum panels, roughly 2 feet by 4 feet, that clamp together on site to form a full 4-foot-diameter cylinder. Stack the panels and you get an industry-standard 1000 psf trench cage rated for depths up to 26 feet in standard soil conditions, with a built-in ladder, lifting hooks, and assembly clamps included in every set.
The result is a shield strong enough to protect a worker at depth, light enough that a single crew member can carry a panel in one hand, and small enough to live full-time on the deck of a hydrovac truck.
“A circle is the strongest shape. Due to the even distribution of force, it can withstand much more pressure.”
Inside an installed EasyDig cage. The ladder is built into the panel.
From a Manitoba water-main break to a patented product
Long before there was a company, there were two operators in southeastern Manitoba: Wayne Isaac and Kirby Isaac, both at Steinbach Hydrovac, both spending a lot of their week responding to sewer and water-main breaks under residential lawns.
The work was familiar — and frustrating. Every emergency repair required a hydrovac truck and an excavator just to drop a square trench shield, and every time the excavator showed up, the homeowner’s yard paid the price. Heavy steel boxes were industry standard for a reason, but they were overkill for the kind of small, single-point repair the crew actually needed to do.
Wayne, a welder by background, started thinking about it differently. If a square box concentrated stress at its corners, what about a shape with no corners at all?
An early concept sketch for the circular shoring system. Wayne’s starting point was the egg — geometrically the strongest natural shape — and the principle that pressure distributed evenly across a curve will always outperform pressure concentrated at a corner.
Wayne built the first circular shoring with a local machine shop in Manitoba: stackable circular pieces of metal, transported to site on the deck of a hydrovac truck. It worked. Contractors loved that they could call in one piece of equipment instead of three. Homeowners loved that their lawns were not torn up by a backhoe.
But that first generation was heavy. The second generation, engineered and pressure-tested, replaced the metal with aluminum and cut the full circle into two half- circle panels — a small change that dropped the per-panel weight under 50 pounds and made the cage genuinely hand-portable. That design earned a patent.
In 2020, Kirby Isaac founded EasyTech Infrastructure Group to commercialize the system, with Carmelle Isaac as CEO and Robert Dueck leading R&D. Wayne moved into shoring sales, bringing 40 years of operator experience to the conversations with crews who buy the product. The first 10 production sets sold in under a year.
“Contractors loved the fact they need only call in a hydrovac instead of multiple pieces of equipment. Homeowners loved that their lawns were not messed up with a big backhoe.”
One truck, one job, no excavator on the call
Most shoring on the market was designed for the deep, long-run trenches a pipe crew might dig. EasyDig was designed for the opposite: the short, vertical hole a hydrovac truck cuts to expose a service line, repair a leaking joint, or tap into a main.
Because the panels live on the truck and assemble by hand, a single hydrovac crew can handle the full job — locate, dig, shore, repair, backfill — without staging a second piece of equipment or scheduling a separate excavator visit. That is faster mobilization, fewer trucks on the road, and far less restoration work afterward.
Where EasyDig shows up on a job
Water-main repairs, sewer service taps, gas-line locates, telecom vault access — anywhere a hydrovac crew has been doing a small excavation with an oversized trench box, EasyDigfits the work.
Water-main repair
Crews can drop the cage directly over a leaking joint and access the line without expanding the dig footprint.
Confined-space access
A built-in ladder and full-perimeter wall protection let a worker enter and exit safely at depth.
Modular staging
Sets stack flat for transport. Add or remove panels to match the depth of the excavation.
The people behind EasyTech Infrastructure Group
A family operation rooted in southeastern Manitoba, with deep operator experience on the hydrovac side of the business.
Founded EasyTech Infrastructure Group in 2020 to commercialize EasyDig and bring innovative ideas from the underground infrastructure trades to market.
Leads day-to-day operations and the company's expansion across the North American hydrovac and utilities market.
Inventor of the EasyDig circular trench cage. Forty years of sales experience and a former hydrovac company owner — the operator perspective behind every design decision.
Two decades of manufacturing and product design experience. Drives engineering iteration on the aluminum panel system and accessories.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about EasyDig and EasyTech Group, drawn fromeasytechgroup.caand the company’s published technical data.
- What is the EasyDig shoring system?
- EasyDig is a patented circular trench cage made of lightweight aluminum half-circle panels that clamp together to form a 1000 psf trench shield. It is engineered for small-footprint excavations — especially the kind hydrovac trucks dig for utility locates, water-main repairs, and service taps — at depths from 4 to 26 feet.
- Why is the cage circular instead of a traditional square trench box?
- A circle distributes inward soil pressure evenly around its full perimeter, the same engineering principle that makes an egg shell hard to crush. Square trench boxes concentrate force at their corners and require heavier materials and equipment to handle the same load. The circular design lets EasyDig hit the 1000 psf rating using aluminum panels light enough for a single worker to carry by hand.
- How does EasyDig work with a hydrovac truck?
- A hydrovac crew can transport the entire EasyDig set on the truck, dig the hole with the vac wand, then lower the modular half-circle panels into the cleared shaft and clamp them together in place. Because no excavator is required to set the shoring, contractors can complete utility work without tearing up landscaping or staging multiple pieces of heavy equipment.
- Who founded EasyTech Infrastructure Group?
- EasyTech Infrastructure Group was founded in 2020 by Kirby Isaac in southeastern Manitoba, Canada. Carmelle Isaac serves as CEO. The EasyDig product itself was invented by Wayne Isaac, a hydrovac operator and welder who built the first prototype while responding to water-main breaks at Steinbach Hydrovac.
- What problem was EasyDig originally built to solve?
- Wayne and Kirby Isaac were running into the same scenario over and over again on residential water-main breaks: traditional square shoring required an excavator that destroyed the homeowner's lawn and forced the crew to bring multiple pieces of equipment to a small, single-point repair. EasyDig was designed so a hydrovac truck alone could complete the job — safer for the worker, cleaner for the property.
- What is included in a single EasyDig set?
- A standard EasyDig set includes 10 or 12 stackable half-circle aluminum panels (each weighing under 50 pounds), a built-in ladder, lifting hooks, and assembly clamps. Common configurations are 10-foot depth × 4-foot diameter or 12-foot depth × 4-foot diameter. Optional accessories include a locking shoring cover and individual replacement panels.
- Where can I buy or rent EasyDig?
- EasyTech Infrastructure Group sells and supports the EasyDig system across Canada and the United States. Quote requests, technical data sheets, and the operator manual are available at easytechgroup.ca, or by calling 1-855-485-EASY.
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Troy brings 34 years of personal experience in hydro excavation to Hydrovac News, with a background owning and operating hydrovac companies. He is a recognized advocate for reducing preventable utility strikes through hydrovac adoption.
