Lynn Barr
Back to Our Traditional Mix of Work
Underground has been extremely busy over the past four years. Formerly,
our traditional mix of work included Aircraft Fueling projects, Refinery projects,
District Energy jobs on college campuses, and Broadband Fiber Optic jobs in urban areas.
We also continued our maintenance and improvement work for the incumbent phone companies
like Pac Bell and Roseville Telephone. As our telecommunication customers began a frenzy
of building, more and more of our work became concentrated in that sector.
Well, as the old saying goes, "What goes up must come down," and
here we are. Our broadband customers have mostly dried up. Many have gone bankrupt leaving
millions of investors, employees, and consumers holding the bag. We have been quite
diligent in our commercial practices and have very little exposure in that regard. My
congratulations to our Engineering and Management staff for their thoroughness. |
Where do we go from here? We go
back to our traditional mix of work. As I write this we have three major aircraft fueling
jobs in house to estimate, as well as a water treatment job with heavy concrete
structures. Just like we used to do. Yes, these jobs will require different skills and
will pose different challenges. But we have done them successfully before and I have full
confidence that our Undergrounders will perform skillfully. We will be changing our mix
of equipment to match the differing requirement of new work. Some of the gear we used on
broadband jobs will not be applicable to the work we get. So we'll make the necessary
adjustments.
I have written before about change and how we'll embrace it and thrive on it. That all
remains the same. After all, Underground has one of the most highly educated and broadly
experienced Engineering and Management staffs in the country. Added to that, our
Supervisors have logged years of excellent performance in all of our work sectors. With
this combination of dedicated people we cannot lose and, if the fiber jobs come back,
we'll be rested and ready, but not waiting.
"Yes, these jobs will require different skills
and will pose different challenges, but we have done them successfully before and I have
full confidence that our Undergrounders will perform skillfully." |
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