TEAM FISHEL PROVIDES TURNKEY SOLUTIONS AT DAVIS MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE

Last November, Team Fishel’s Government Services Division began a turnkey conduit and manhole project at the Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. This $635,000 project was awarded to Northrop Grumman Defense Group as part of the Network Centric Solutions (NETCENTS) contract. The Air Force planned to consolidate base personnel into newer buildings, which did not have adequate voice and data capacity. This project provided immediate relief to those targeted locations and reinforced the substructure for future base expansion.

According to Jeff Weigandt, Program Manager, the majority of work was completed by crews from Tucson.

“Tucson Foreman Nathan Vance was assigned to the project as co-lead for the outside plant phase,” said Weigandt. “Nathan is the type of person you can brief in the morning and have full confidence in his ability to keep things coordinated and moving forward.”


Weigandt also utilized two backhoe crews from Phoenix and a directional drilling crew from Chandler to complete 17 drill shots. In all, the job consisted of 15 manholes and approximately 10,000 feet of conduit structure. Once the conduit system was complete, copper and fiber cables were installed and terminated in the central office, which required the build-out of the main distribution frame.Weigandt called on technicians from Phoenix to perform the inside plant work, splicing and testing cables.

The crews encountered numerous abandoned gas, water and sewer lines as well as buried building foundations and structures, which were left in place during base renovations in the 1940’s and 50’s. There were several fiber owners on the base such as PrevenTronics, which installed fiber for security cameras, Qwest, Base Communications, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Flight Line Operations, which owns the control tower communications. Weigandt had several meetings in the field as unmarked fibers were exposed so the government could try to decipher who owned them.

“If it wasn’t for the skill of our Backhoe Operators, we would have caused severe damage to many of the lines that were unmarked,” said Weigandt.

Even with all of the unmarked lines they encountered, Fishel Teammates did not cause any service outages, which Weigandt contributes to a little bit of luck and a lot of Operator skill.

“This project was full of obstacles from day one,” said Bill Pauley, Vice President of Western Region. “But experience and knowing the government’s internal protocol allowed Team Fishel to keep working. Jeff Weigandt clearly demonstrated Team Fishel PRIDE which may lead to future opportunities at Davis Monthan.”