Page 8 - Mississippi 811 Magazine 2022 Issue 2

Maneuvering Through the Obstacles of a Large Project
Publisher’s note: This article is the
first in a series of articles about a soon to begin broadband project that will impact much of Coahoma County and then reach beyond the borders of the county. With all the broadband projects going on someone might say, why select this project to follow? The reason is
the way that it began. It began well in advance of the excavation as the project could begin as early as May. It begins with the excavator and owner letting
all the other utility owners/operators know what the proposed plans are while asking for feedback to make the project as successful as possible. 811 Magazines will follow this project from beginning to end and create a series of articles
to track its progress. This article will serve as the introduction. The next article will focus on “What we thought we were going to do?” The follow up to that article will be “What we did and why we did what we did.” And finally, we’ll look at “Lessons learned.” It may well be that other interesting sidebars will be uncovered that we’ll highlight throughout the course of the project. Major projects like these have created many frustrations across the nation. This project proposes to offer a different approach and still meet established goals including timelines and, in
the end, create positive and lasting relationships that go beyond the life of the excavation.
n April 12 in Clarksdale, As this was a new kind of project
a very early preplanning for Uplink, Brian wanted to have a meeting was held at the preconstruction meeting but really offices of Uplink. This wasn’t sure where to start. Brian knew
meeting came about as the result of a that the potential for damages and
6 • Mississippi 811 2022, Issue 2
Jerry Kennemur, MissiOssippi 811 Damage Prevention Coordinator, explains the benefits of working together.
chance meeting at the Farm and Gin Show in Memphis. Jerry Kennemur, Mississippi 811 Damage Prevention Coordinator, representing 811 along with surrounding 811 Centers from Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas was introduced to Brian Smith, CEO of Uplink from Clarksdale.
Uplink, a wireless internet company
has been in business for 10 years in the Clarksdale area, but things were about to change in a big way for Brian, Uplink and Coahoma County. Brian had been awarded a contract to provide fiber to the home in Coahoma County with the project covering approximately 97 miles.
frustrations was high, and he wanted to know how best to contact all affected utilities before and during the project. As he and Jerry discussed the project, Jerry told Brian, he would help set it up.
A lot of projects get started off on
the wrong foot and many times, it is the result of not getting the impacted stakeholders together to discuss the challenges in advance of the actual excavation. One of the very important roles the Mississippi 811 Damage Prevention Coordinators fill is helping get stakeholders together before the excavation starts. Many of the visits
Brian Smith, CEO of Uplink, identifies the proposed route of the broadband project.