If you ask most Las Vegas contractors about business these days, they may put it the way Larry Fortin does: “It’s stupid busy,” he says.

The city is no longer just a vacation spot. It’s becoming a permanent destination for more and more homeowners, retirees and entrepreneurs alike. And, if you’re in Fortin’s business, explosive growth equals explosive business.

Fortin, owner and president of Las Vegas underground construction business Kaccel Communications Services, Inc., has been hiring hands and buying equipment like crazy. And, as is often the case, buying new equipment has led Fortin to even more work. In fact, thanks to the recent purchase of a rockwheel trencher, Kaccel is now being recruited for projects the company had never before attempted.

Kaccel recently completed all trenching work for a new half-acre Nevada substation, which entailed trenching every 20 feet in a checkerboard pattern for a grounding grid. Then Brink Electric, the primary contractor on the job, installed 4-ought bare-stranded copper wire in the trenches and cad-welded it at each section.

Fortin says he got a call about submitting a bid for the job after South Dakota-based Brink Electric Construction, a high-voltage electric substation and transmission line contractor, heard Fortin had recently purchased the rockwheel.

“We don’t do substation work — normally,” Fortin says. “However, this was a brand-new substation that was not yet activated, and the contractor was in a quandary about how to trench and install their grounding grid. They talked to the local Vermeer dealer, who gave them our name. He knew he’d sold us the Vermeer V120 Rockwheel, and he told Brink the trencher would be their best option for digging inside the substation.”

Fortin says he owns three trenchers that were all options for the job, but the rockwheel was the clear choice. “Our small V4150A rubber-tire trencher wouldn’t have had enough weight to dig in this rock because it was just too hard,” he says. “And our Vermeer T755 track trencher could’ve done the job, but was too cumbersome and would have cut a wider trench than we needed.”

Using the T755 to cut the trenches would have posed two challenges for Kaccel. Fortin’s crew had to trench a grid every 20 feet, which meant a lot of crossing over. The 2-foot-wide trenches the T755 would have created would have been tougher to walk over — and the overflow from one trench to the next would’ve created more handwork for the team.

“We did have to do hand digging on the substation every time we crossed trenches. There was an overflow of materials going into the adjacent trench that you had to clean out,” Fortin says. “Using the rockwheel to trench 6 inches wide, instead of 24 inches wide, was one of the factors that helped save us time.”

The crew averaged about 5 feet a minute with the 116 hp trencher, and trenched a total of 3500 linear feet in three days. The ground conditions, which consisted almost entirely of 7000-psi cemented gravel, were brutal. “Basically you’re digging through material that’s two times harder than manmade concrete,” Fortin says. “That’s concrete the way the good Lord made it. But the rockwheel still cut a nice, straight wall.”

Kaccel Communications
Kaccel, pronounced “castle,” specializes in trenching and horizontal directional drilling in the greater Las Vegas area. The company handles underground power, telephone and cable installation.

Fortin says about half of their work is done directly for power and phone companies in the area, including Nevada Power and Sprint. The rest of Kaccel’s business is for commercial and, less often, residential developers.

Kaccel was established in 1985. The name represents the initials of Fortin’s entire family: wife and co-owner, Kathy, along with their children, Amber, Chris, Cory and Erin. The “l,” of course, represents Larry.

Prior to establishing Kaccel with his wife, Fortin was a contract inspector for a phone company in Las Vegas. Before that, he was a contract engineer in Phoenix, Arizona, and before that he was an electrical engineer for a Vermont power company. What brought Fortin from Vermont to Vegas? Coincidentally, it’s the same attraction to the valley that is helping Kaccel and other contractors enjoy booming business today. Fortin says he mounted his motorcycle in the late ’80s, bound to see the country. After winding through the south, he landed in Las Vegas — and never left.

Today, Fortin’s company employs 85 people who work in about 15 different crews. Some are two-men crews who do maintenance work for Sprint and other communications companies. Others work on the various construction jobs.

Kaccel’s fleet is made up of a dozen rubber-tired backhoes, two excavators, six Caterpillar front loaders, and three Vermeer trenchers. In addition, the company owns about 35 trucks, from mechanic’s trucks to service trucks.

Fortin is very active in the National Utility Contractor’s Association of Las Vegas. He has served as president, and is currently the chairman of the utility committee.

Kaccel’s success on the Lone Mountain substation project has already led to more substation work in nearby Indian Springs. Depending on the ground conditions there, Kaccel may deploy the rockwheel once again. “That type of machine works great when you’ve got clear trenching,” Fortin says. “It did the job even better than we anticipated.”