Underground Infrastructure - September 2023 - 25

DIRECTIONALDRILLING
DDURT Construction Tackles
Treacherous Ground Conditions
to Connect Rural Communities
100% Focus on Efficient Fiber Installation Results in Streamlined Approach
Amy Olson
In 2016, Thomas Rathbone enlisted the help of lifelong friends
to start a utility construction company that specializes in horizontal
directional drilling (HDD). The friends decided to call
their company, DDURT Construction, an acronym for Directional
Drilling Underground Routing Technicians.
Connecting communities with fiber for high-speed internet
access is the sole focus.
" We go into communities that have either poor access or no
access, " said Mark Barrett, DDURT Construction operations
manager. " We're keeping people connected and giving them
access to the things that bigger cities typically have. "
Barrett, a founding member of the Oklahoma-based company,
has known Rathbone since they were 10 years old.
The two have always relied on each other, which has helped
the company survive an early setback when they were not paid
for a $300,000 project. Through some early trials, the founding
members didn't give up. This perseverance has paid off as the
company continues to grow.
" We were just a bunch of regular guys from a small town.
We worked hard, and as we built up, we bought another drill.
As these projects started blowing up, we went from four of us to
eight and then 12. Now we are at 74. It's been a lot of learning
as we go and putting the right people around us, " said Barrett.
Propelling growth
The demand for high-speed internet and a strong work ethic are
the major contributors to the organization's growth. The company
is engaged with installing the fiber backbone across rural Oklahoma.
It recently won a bid to install fiber for the Canadian ValUndergroundInfrastructure.com
| SEPTEMBER 2023 25
ley Electric Cooperative that services the greater Shawnee, Okla.,
region and encompasses the southeast section of Oklahoma.
Installing fiber in this region is no small feat due to an abundance
of sandstone and rock. DDURT Construction is currently
in the second year of the five-year project to connect customers
in this area with high-speed communications. While the company
specializes in directional drilling, it's also performing trenching,
excavation work and cable pulling on this job.
The project originated in Shawnee and expanded to parallel
the cooperative's existing infrastructure. In addition, the project
branched off into some areas that don't have existing Canadian
Valley Cooperative power structure, such as the city of Seminole.
While there's a significant amount of overhead aerial work,
approximately 90 percent of the work by DDURT Construction
is directional drilling.
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Underground Infrastructure - September 2023

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