For those not living on the Gulf Coast or in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed in late August of 2005 are not given much attention these days. But for residents of these areas, the effects of those devastating storms are still being felt, and restoration of storm damage continues every day.

B&B Electrical & Utility Contractors, Inc., based in Brandon, Mississippi, was deeply involved in emergency restoration immediately following the storms and B&B crews have been busy with storm-related work ever since.

"We had emergency crews and equipment restoring power immediately after the storm hit and winds subsided enough to be able to work safely," said Brien Blakeney, B&B president. "In fact, many of our employees were affected by the storm and had to cut their way through downed trees to get to their homes to pack before leaving for emergency work. Once we arrived like others coming to help, we found logistics very difficult. Cell phone towers were down, so communicating was difficult and often impossible. There was no place to stay, so we were sleeping in trucks, gyms, and other temporary shelters."

Even though "emergency" restoration of utility services is complete, B&B crews remain busy in the area on projects directly related to the storms. For the past year, they have been replacing underground cable and traffic signal and highway lighting along segments of U.S. Highway 90 in Waveland, Mississippi in the state's western-most Gulf Coast county, east to Pascagoula.

Waveland was nearly destroyed by Katrina.

"When the Mississippi governor said everything along the coast in that area had been destroyed, he wasn't exaggerating," said Blakeney. "From the water inland to the railroad tracks—roughly two blocks—everything was simply gone—historic antebellum homes, whole sections of streets and the highway, everything was gone."

Even though cables for lighting and traffic signals were buried, they were uncovered by the force of the storm and washed away.

B&B installed temporary traffic signals soon after the storm, and now is replacing them.

"This project covers about 30 miles and includes more than 40 traffic signal systems at intersections and multiple miles of roadway lighting," said Blakeney. "The system we're installing now has cameras, radio interconnect, and the latest traffic-management technology."

All cable is underground in conduit.

In open areas, the conduits in diameters from one to three inches are trenched. Directional drilling is used to go under streets, concrete medians, and under sea walls. Blakeney estimates about 10 miles of bores have been made to date. Lengths ranged from 50 to 500 feet with the average length approximately 150 feet. Smaller sizes of conduit usually are pulled in without backreaming. Larger conduit may require one backreaming pass before product installation.

In addition to running cable through conduit, B&B crews install pull boxes, distribution cabinets, light pole assemblies, and make all connections.

In addition to avoiding surface damage and restoration excavation that would required, the compact HDD equipment used by B&B minimizes disruption of traffic in work zones. Three diesel-powered Ditch Witch Jet Trac machines are being used:

A 60-horsepower JT1220 Mach 1 which generates 12,000 pounds of pullback force, 1,200 foot pounds of torque, and maximum spindle speed of 180 rpm; A JT1720 Mach 1, an 85-horsepower model with 17,000 pounds of pullback, 1,800 foot pounds of torque, and spindle speeds to 200 rpm;

And a JT2020 Mach 1 with 20,000 pounds pullback, 2,200 foot pounds of torque, and maximum spindle speed of 150 rpm.

"We have installed a lot of traffic signal systems in this area over the past dozen years," said Blakeney, "many along Highway 90 where we are working now, and we have replaced a lot of them destroyed by the storms. Right before its scheduled opening in 2005, we had just completed the traffic signal system at the new Hard Rock Casino Biloxi, and the storm seriously damaging the building as well as traffic lights and other surface improvements.

The contracts are piggybacked, so there has been no gap between ending one and starting the next, Blakeney said.

When it was established in 1982, B&B Electrical provided residential electrical construction and services. It has evolved today to one of the state's largest electrical and utility construction companies building and renovating overhead and underground electrical distribution systems, commercial and industrial wiring, lighting for streets and highways, parking lots, and airport projects, including taxi ways, runways, approaches, and beacon tower construction.

B&B also is routinely involved in emergency power restoration after weather-related outages and most recently sent crews to Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri after a December 2007 ice storm left nearly one million residences and businesses without power in several Midwestern states.

B&B currently employs approximately 300 people who operate from company headquarters in Brandon and branches in Canton, Horn Lake, and on the Gulf Coast in Saucier, the office that manages projects in that region. The company operates a fleet of equipment containing a wide range of underground and aerial construction equipment and vehicles.

In addition to the HDD machines, Ditch Witch equipment owned by B&B includes 3610, RT95, and RT115 trenchers and FX30 vacuum excavation equipment used to pothole to uncover and visibly confirm locations of buried utilities and to clean up drilling fluids on HDD work sites.

Ditch Witch equipment is manufactured by The Charles Machine Works, Inc. Perry, Oklahoma, a leading provider of underground utility construction equipment. The Ditch Witch product line includes trenchers, horizontal directional drilling systems, vibratory plows, vacuum excavators, mini skid-steers, electrical utility locators, and related products. Ditch Witch equipment is sold and serviced through the worldwide Ditch Witch dealer network.