Do you subcontract any of the work?

No, our core scopes are self-performed. Directional drilling, aerial construction, conduit installation, and fiber splicing and testing are done with owned equipment and employed crews. If a project needs a specialty trade outside outside plant construction, such as structural concrete work, we identify it in writing before award so you know exactly who will be on your site and who answers for their work.

How do you decide which drill rig or lift goes to a job?

Selection happens during the Locate and Plan step, before anything is scheduled. Bore length, product diameter, soil, required depth, and site access decide the rig class. Working height, side reach, material handling, and clearance to energized lines decide the lift. The result is written into the plan, so the unit that arrives on mobilization day is the one the route needs.

Can you staff more than one crew on a project?

Yes, when the schedule calls for it. Larger backbone and distribution builds are often staffed with separate placement and splicing crews, so testing does not wait for production to finish. Crew assignments are confirmed against the schedule and the permit windows before mobilization, and any change in staffing is reported to your point of contact rather than discovered on site.

What happens if a piece of equipment breaks down during the job?

Daily inspection catches most problems before a unit leaves the yard, which is the first line of defense. If a rig, lift, or splicer does fail on site, owning the equipment means the repair or replacement is our responsibility to arrange, not a rental yard's. Any delay that follows is reported the same day with a revised plan, not absorbed quietly.

Will the same crew stay on my project from start to finish?

That is the plan on every job, and it is a main reason we employ our own crews. The crew lead who walks the route is normally the one who runs construction and supports closeout. When a scope extends or a second phase is awarded, we return the same people where scheduling allows, because route knowledge does not transfer well between crews.

Can you provide an equipment list for our prequalification package?

Yes. An itemized equipment list is provided in prequalification and bid packages on request, along with other documents your procurement team needs. Send your requirement list and deadline to hello@strillacommunications.com or call (386) 396-2033. We do not publish specific units on the website because the list changes as equipment is added or replaced.

Do your crews handle both aerial and underground work on one route?

Yes. Many routes run aerial for several spans, drop underground at a road crossing, and return to the pole line. We carry both capabilities in house, so the riser, the pole to handhole transition, and the slack around it stay with one crew lead and one schedule. That removes a contractor handoff at the point where mistakes are most likely.

About

Equipment & Crews

Owned equipment and directly employed crews, organized so one contractor can carry a job from bore path to closeout package.

Strilla Communications owns its equipment and employs its own crews, so directional drilling, aerial construction, and fiber work are self-performed rather than brokered. That means directional drills, bucket trucks, and fiber splicing and test equipment are scheduled against our own calendar, and the crew that starts your job is the crew that finishes it.

Owned Equipment, Directly Employed Crews

Most outside plant schedule slips trace back to something other than the work itself. A subcontracted crew gets pulled to a higher paying job, a rented rig does not show up on the promised day, or a splice tech is scheduled by a broker you have never spoken to.

Strilla Communications is structured to remove that layer. We own the equipment classes our scopes require and we employ the people who run them, which means availability is a scheduling decision we control rather than a third party commitment we are waiting on.

It also means accountability stays in one place. When a bore comes in shallow, when a strand tension is questioned, or when a splice loss reading needs a second look, the person who did the work is on our payroll and can be back on site.

Equipment Classes We Operate

The list below describes classes of equipment rather than specific machines, because the right selection changes with bore length, soil, access, and pole line conditions. Equipment is matched to the scope during planning, not assumed.

Horizontal directional drilling rigs, selected by bore length, product diameter, and site access
Vacuum excavation and mud recovery units for potholing, tolerance zone exposure, and drilling fluid handling
Drilling fluid mixing and delivery systems sized to the rig and the soil condition
Walkover locating and bore tracking systems for depth, pitch, and alignment verification
Aerial lift equipment for strand, lash, overlash, and aerial fiber placement
Reel trailers, cable trailers, and lashing equipment for aerial cable construction
Fusion splicing, fiber blowing, fiber pulling, and optical test equipment for placement and acceptance
Support trucks, compaction equipment, and tooling for conduit installation, handhole and vault placement, and restoration
Temporary traffic control equipment for maintenance of traffic on road, shoulder, and sidewalk work

How Crews Are Organized

A directional drilling crew is built around the rig: an operator, a locator tracking the head, and support personnel handling entry and exit pits, fluid, vacuum excavation, and product staging. That grouping keeps the bore under continuous observation rather than periodic checks.

An aerial crew is built around the lift and the reel. Strand placement, lashing, overlash, and aerial fiber placement each carry different rigging and clearance considerations, so the crew composition changes with the attachment conditions on the run.

Fiber crews work separately from placement crews on larger jobs so splicing and testing are not competing with production for the same people. On smaller scopes the same personnel carry both, which is one of the practical advantages of a contractor that does not silo aerial, underground, and fiber work.

Dual Aerial and Underground Capability

Many routes are not purely one or the other. A distribution run may be aerial for several spans, drop underground at a road crossing, then return to the pole line. Splitting that between two contractors creates a handoff at exactly the point where risk is highest.

We carry both capabilities in house, so a transition point is a sequencing question inside one schedule rather than a coordination problem between two companies. Riser installation, pole to handhole transitions, and the slack management around them stay with one crew lead.

Maintenance and Readiness

Equipment is inspected before it leaves the yard and again at the job site. Daily checks cover fluid systems, hydraulics, tooling wear, lift function, and the locating and test gear that the day depends on, because a failed tracking system stops a bore just as effectively as a failed engine.

Readiness also supports emergency service restoration. Storm response and outage restoration only work if a rig, a lift, or a splice setup can leave the yard without first being recovered from another obligation, which is a direct benefit of owning rather than renting.

Crew Continuity and Communication

Continuity is an operational advantage, not a courtesy. A crew that has already walked your route knows where the tight access is, which pole needs the compact lift, and which crossing came in harder than expected, and none of that knowledge survives a crew swap.

One point of contact carries the job from planning through closeout, and that person can tell you where the crew is today without making calls first. Daily production reporting comes from the field, so what you read matches what actually happened.

When a scope extends or a second phase is awarded, the same personnel return where scheduling allows. That is the practical reason owners keep asking for the same crew back.

What This Means for Your Schedule

You get one point of contact who knows where the equipment and the people are, a mobilization date that is not contingent on a rental yard, and a crew that stays with the job through documentation and closeout.

An itemized equipment list for prequalification or bid submission is provided in prequalification packages on request.

How Is Equipment Matched to a Scope?

Equipment is matched to the route during planning, one work type at a time. The route walk produces the facts that decide it: bore lengths and crossing depths, the product diameter going in the ground, pole heights and setbacks, staging room at each entry pit, and the surfaces that will need restoration.

A route with several short driveway crossings, two road crossings, and a run of aerial spans does not need one big machine. It needs a compact rig for the driveways, a mid-size rig for the roads, a lift sized to the tallest pole on the run, and a splice setup ready when the cable is in. Planning puts each of those on the calendar in the order the work actually happens.

Matching also covers support gear that is easy to forget. Vacuum excavation has to be on site before the first crossing, traffic control has to fit the road classification, and test equipment has to match the acceptance standard. A missing support unit stops a crew as surely as a missing rig.

What Should You Ask a Contractor About Equipment and Crews?

The answers to a few direct questions tell you more about schedule risk than a capability brochure does. Ask them of every contractor on your bid list, including us, and compare the answers side by side.

Is the drilling, aerial, and fiber equipment owned, leased long term, or rented per job?
Are the operators, locators, and splicers employees, or are they subcontracted through another firm?
Who runs the locating and tracking on a bore, and how are depth readings recorded?
What happens to the schedule if a rig or lift breaks down in the middle of the job?
Will the crew that starts the job stay through restoration and closeout?
Can the contractor perform both the aerial and the underground portions of a mixed route?

Key takeaways

Strilla Communications owns its drilling, aerial, and fiber equipment and employs the crews that run it, so core outside plant work is self-performed rather than brokered.
Equipment is matched to each route during planning by bore length, soil, pole height, access, and acceptance standard, not assigned by whatever is available that morning.
Carrying both aerial and underground capability removes the contractor handoff at riser and road crossing transitions, where mixed routes most often go wrong.
An itemized equipment list is provided in prequalification packages on request rather than published, because a fleet list on a website goes stale.

Key terms

Self-performed work: Construction carried out by the contractor's own employees using equipment the contractor controls, rather than passed to subcontractors. Self-performance keeps scheduling, quality control, and accountability inside one company, which reduces the risk of a crew or machine being pulled to another job without notice.
Drill spread: The full set of equipment a directional bore depends on: the drill rig, tracking and locating system, drilling fluid mixing and recovery, vacuum excavation, tooling, pit management, and traffic control. A rig without the rest of its spread can stall on a crossing a complete spread finishes in a shift.
Aerial lift: A truck or trailer mounted boom with a bucket or platform that raises a lineman to the attachment point on a utility pole. In telecommunications work it is often called a bucket truck. Working height, side reach, material handling, and insulation rating determine where a given lift can be used.
Riser transition: The point where cable leaves the pole line and runs down a protective riser into an underground conduit or handhole. Risers appear wherever a route switches between aerial and underground construction, and they need careful slack management, attachment, and grounding to avoid later failures.

Equipment classes on Strilla Communications projects and what each is used for

Equipment class	Used for	Selected by
Directional drill rigs (compact, mid-size, large)	Driveway, road, and utility crossings; conduit runs between structures	Bore length, product diameter, soil, site access
Vacuum excavation units	Potholing inside the tolerance zone, fluid recovery, pit cleanout	Crossing count, soil, fluid volume
Aerial lifts	Strand, lash, overlash, aerial fiber, aerial splice access	Pole height, side reach, clearance to power
Reel, cable, and lashing equipment	Controlled payoff and sag on aerial and underground pulls	Cable type, reel size, run length
Fusion splicing and optical test sets	Splicing, OTDR and loss testing, connector inspection	Fiber count and the acceptance standard
Temporary traffic control devices	Lane, shoulder, and sidewalk work zones	Road classification, speed, permit conditions

Aerial versus underground fiber

What this means for your project

For a project manager, owned equipment and employed crews mainly reduce schedule risk. Your mobilization date does not depend on a rental yard, and a delay on another contractor's job cannot pull our crew off yours. When something does go wrong, the people who did the work are on our payroll and can be back on site to fix it.

It also simplifies risk on mixed routes. One contractor carrying both aerial and underground work means one schedule, one set of insurance certificates, and one point of contact across every transition. Questions about a riser or a road crossing do not turn into a dispute between two firms about whose work caused the problem.

Documentation benefits as well. The crew that placed the cable is the crew that records it, so as-built data, photos, and test results come from the people who were there. Ask for the itemized equipment list during prequalification if your procurement process requires one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you subcontract any of the work?: No, our core scopes are self-performed. Directional drilling, aerial construction, conduit installation, and fiber splicing and testing are done with owned equipment and employed crews. If a project needs a specialty trade outside outside plant construction, such as structural concrete work, we identify it in writing before award so you know exactly who will be on your site and who answers for their work.
How do you decide which drill rig or lift goes to a job?: Selection happens during the Locate and Plan step, before anything is scheduled. Bore length, product diameter, soil, required depth, and site access decide the rig class. Working height, side reach, material handling, and clearance to energized lines decide the lift. The result is written into the plan, so the unit that arrives on mobilization day is the one the route needs.
Can you staff more than one crew on a project?: Yes, when the schedule calls for it. Larger backbone and distribution builds are often staffed with separate placement and splicing crews, so testing does not wait for production to finish. Crew assignments are confirmed against the schedule and the permit windows before mobilization, and any change in staffing is reported to your point of contact rather than discovered on site.
What happens if a piece of equipment breaks down during the job?: Daily inspection catches most problems before a unit leaves the yard, which is the first line of defense. If a rig, lift, or splicer does fail on site, owning the equipment means the repair or replacement is our responsibility to arrange, not a rental yard's. Any delay that follows is reported the same day with a revised plan, not absorbed quietly.
Will the same crew stay on my project from start to finish?: That is the plan on every job, and it is a main reason we employ our own crews. The crew lead who walks the route is normally the one who runs construction and supports closeout. When a scope extends or a second phase is awarded, we return the same people where scheduling allows, because route knowledge does not transfer well between crews.
Can you provide an equipment list for our prequalification package?: Yes. An itemized equipment list is provided in prequalification and bid packages on request, along with other documents your procurement team needs. Send your requirement list and deadline to hello@strillacommunications.com or call (386) 396-2033. We do not publish specific units on the website because the list changes as equipment is added or replaced.
Do your crews handle both aerial and underground work on one route?: Yes. Many routes run aerial for several spans, drop underground at a road crossing, and return to the pole line. We carry both capabilities in house, so the riser, the pole to handhole transition, and the slack around it stay with one crew lead and one schedule. That removes a contractor handoff at the point where mistakes are most likely.

Related services

Request a Bid

Ready to start your next directional drilling or fiber project?

Send the scope and we will come back with a clear, documented bid. Owned crews, aerial and underground under one contract, and a closeout package that lets you close the file.

Request a Bid Call (386) 396-2033

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