About Us - Case Studies

Originally scoped as a quick, multi-day job to install a 96-strand fiber between buildings on private property, the project quickly morphed into conduit excavation, manhole construction, and a high-stakes game of "guess which pipe has the high voltage."

• Issue 1: Pull string snapped during rope installation - We started with a standard setup - an empty conduit with a nylon pull string in place, typical for future cable pulls. But nylon is not rated for heavy pulling, but rather just for pulling in the actual rope that does the work.

  As we pulled in the rope, we hit resistance. More than you'd expect from normal bends or distance. Then, snap! The pull string broke. That meant the rope didn't make it through, and now we had no way to pull the fiber. Rabbit hole entered.

• Issue 2: Rodder blocked by conduit collapse - Time to fish the conduit. We ran a fiberglass rodder down the pipe, and it stopped cold. It wouldn't budge. When we reeled it back in, it was covered in mud and gravel. That's the field version of the flashing red light of conduit collapse.

  Thankfully, we roll with a top-shelf, rodder—marked, traceable, and trackable. Using our locator, we marked the exact spot (and depth) of the blockage from both ends. Both attempts stopped at the same place. That gave us high confidence in the dig location, and more importantly, something actionable to take back to the customer.

  Out of scope? Absolutely. But we bring solutions, not problems. With the customer's blessing, we mobilized for excavation.

• Issue 3: Mystery conduit. High-voltage surprise! - The next day, excavator on-site, we exposed the conduit and found, not one, but two identical conduits side by side. That's not in the prints.

  As we stared at the twins, the customer's electrician came hustling over, clearly concerned. He let us know there was high voltage nearby and, in his words, he was "fairly certain" one of those conduits was it. Then he left. Quickly.

  We weren't about to play high voltage roulette, so we brought out thermal imaging. High voltage cables generate heat. Fiber doesn't. Sure enough, one conduit was significantly warmer than the other. Now we knew which one to avoid.

  SOLUTION - With the dangerous conduit identified, we carefully inspected the comms conduit. First, we drilled a small access hole and inserted a camera to confirm internal cable layout. Once confirmed, we cut open the conduit precisely to avoid damaging the existing fiber. We cleared the collapse, reran the rodder, and confirmed a clean path.
  
  We also prepped for long-term access by installing a new manhole and setting up risers for future-proofing.
  
  With the path cleared and the pull rope installed, the 96-strand fiber went in smoothly. We marked the high voltage run, backfilled everything to spec, and wrapped up the project.