Tackling Tough Jobs
Underground Contractors nails down challenging projects
and celebrates more than 40 years in business.
By Kat Zeman
When Underground Contractors Inc. got its start, wireless communication and internet access were foreign concepts. Women’s liberation was in full swing. Lava lamps, pet rocks and crystals were the new rage along with big hair, giant sunglasses and polyester suits.
Just as disco reached its boiling point, American homes were introduced to novelties like microwave ovens, home VCRs and cable TV. It’s the latter that provided Underground Contractors with its first customers.
“That’s when cable TV was starting to take off,” says Del Mecum Jr., vice president of Wixom, Mich.-based Underground Contractors Inc. “My father got a contract with cable TV … It just sort of grew from there.”
The company that got its start installing optical fiber and coaxial cable for cable TV providers in the 1970s, has blossomed into one of the largest underground and aerial construction companies in the Midwest. An industry leader in 
telecommunications installations, Underground Contractors has worked on jobsites for most major telecommunications providers nationwide.
Its list of services have expanded to include: underground conduit and cable construction; conduit cleaning, rodding and pulling; manhole construction; aerial placement of fiber, coax and copper cables; utility pole placement; engineering and permitting; fiber optic splicing testing; wireless antenna and line installation.
The company was founded in 1976 when Del Mecum Sr., its current president, saw the amount of work available to contractors deploying cable. More than 40 years later, Underground Contractors is still family-owned. Mecum Jr., who started working for the company before graduating high school, has more than 37 years experience in the industry. “I started at in the field doing manual labor and grew through all the different stages,” he says.
Tackling Tough
While Underground Contractors has tackled thousands of projects over the decades, a recent deal at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions football team, stands out.
Last year, Underground Contractors helped upgrade the existing Wi-Fi system at Ford Field to accommodate a higher density of users as well as enhancements made to smartphones and tablets. The old system, installed in 2012, was operated by Verizon and reserved only for fans that were its customers.
“This was a very unique, never-been-done-before job,” Mecum says. “We went into the field in between home games and drilled up the staircase all the way up the stadium. It took us about two weeks.”
The job involved mounting Wi-Fi antennas on handrail locations in the stands surrounding Ford Field. Holes had to be drilled down from three access points along each handrail. Then, cable was deployed underground beneath the stands since there was no access to the seating area from below. In addition, the project required boring close to the field. Underground Contractors’ crews had to be careful to avoid dirtying the field.
Conditions beneath the ground were another obstacle. Crews expected clay and sand, but on occasion they encountered gravel, which slowed them down.
For example, two support crews can complete up to five bores a day when drilling through clay. With gravel, a single bore can take as long as three days. The unpredictable underground terrain required Underground Contractors to add more crews to the project.
“It was a high-profile and unique job that they asked us to do because we have been around for so long and have the experience,” Mecum says.
Early Innovators
Having more than four decades under its belt, Underground Contractors has occasionally led the way when it came to new technology and tools. In the 1990s, the company invested in one of Michigan’s first horizontal directional drills (HDD). The rig helped reduce the amount of time spent at an installation job while making a minimum impact on the terrain.
As internet use exploded in the 1990s, contractors were digging up ground in and around metropolitan areas to install cable for telecommunications companies – disrupting traffic and neighborhoods. Many telecommunication providers began seeking contractors who offered jobsite productivity without long-term disruption. Underground Contractors’ use of the HDD put the company in demand.
Today, the company has 20 rigs ranging from 7,000 to 60,000 pounds, equipped to handle short and long bores on diverse jobsites. In addition, Underground Contractors places high value on job training and the experience of its staff.
“The skills of our operators are central to our continued success,” Mecum says. “We have a lot of employees that have been here for a long time and that have grown up in the industry.”
