With a population of more than 40,000, Rexburg, Idaho, is located in the eastern part of the state and serves as the legislative seat of Idaho’s Madison County. Home to Brigham Young University—Idaho, the Rexburg Idaho Temple and a range of popular museums, parks and nature trails, Rexburg is attracting new residents, businesses and visitors and is among the state’s booming areas.

The city’s precipitous growth in recent years has led to a subsequent increase in traffic and the need for roadway expansions, as well as new traffic signals to help ensure safe and efficient traffic flow for motorists and pedestrians. Thanks to Wheeler Electric Inc.’s expertise in roadway lighting and traffic signaling and its recent efforts to install new signaling systems in three separate locations in Rexburg, it has helped support safer movement on the city’s roadways.

A third-generation, family-owned company founded in 1962 and based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Wheeler Electric serves eastern Idaho but has also worked in Colorado, Montana, New York, Oregon, Washington and as far away as Hawaii. 

“We specialize in industrial, government and large commercial jobs, have amassed experience in such energy-related settings as hydroelectric plants, windmill farms and nuclear facilities in partnership with nearby Idaho National Laboratories, and also cover medium-voltage and substation projects,” said Heath Blackburn, Wheeler Electric’s operations manager and project manager and a 30-year veteran with the company. 

With a team of 50–100 electricians that can swell to more than 200 for large jobs, “Wheeler Electric Inc. has service and voice/data/video departments, is a UL 508A panel shop, and our firm’s No. 1 commitment is to safety,” he said.

Located roughly 30 minutes from Wheeler Electric’s Idaho Falls headquarters, the city of Rexburg has been growing by leaps and bounds, especially since the pandemic, Blackburn said.

“With BYU-Idaho and their [more than] 25,000 on-campus students located there, Rexburg is a busy college town, and the presence of the Rexburg Idaho Temple and Idaho National Laboratories has attracted a lot of people to the area in recent years,” he said. “Our area also grew during the pandemic because of its access to the outdoors and the remote work opportunities that became available.” 

Crew member Devin Pugmire stubs up electrical
conduits for the signal control cabinet.

A three-part project

According to Blackburn, Wheeler Electric was awarded a 2022 bid to address traffic signaling needs in three different locations throughout Rexburg. These projects included the installation of a brand-new traffic signal by the city’s recently constructed Madison High School (where Wheeler Electric was the electrical contractor) and the installation of additional signaling at 7th South Street and South Yellowstone Highway. This intersection was expanded and turn lanes were added. The third project involved the installation of a pedestrian signal, pole and controller across town on the corner of North 2nd East and Stationery Place, where big-box retail stores, commercial facilities and pedestrian walkways were
being constructed.

The team kicked off the project by bringing in their lead foreman, Kevin Cameron. He has extensive background in signaling projects.

“We walked all three of the jobs with Kevin and the city engineer, and Kevin helped improve the designs by moving the location of the signal cabinets and addressing other logistical issues,” Blackburn said. “We also discussed all of the possible hazards associated with the projects, developed a job safety analysis and then started ordering materials for prefab activities, including rebar cages, ties and foundations.”

Industry veteran and lead foreman Kevin Cameron directed activities
and helped mentor younger team members throughout Wheeler
Electric Inc.’s recent traffic signaling projects in Rexburg, Idaho.

One important task that affected all three jobs involved finding an optimal laydown area where the team could stage materials, such as 40-foot signal and light poles and Wheeler Electric’s cargo trailers, bucket and dump trucks, pressure diggers, excavators, air compressors and other tools and equipment. 

“Two of our three project sites were within 1 mile of each other, but the third site was 7 miles away, so we realized that the closer we could position the staging area to the majority of our job sites would save the most time,” Blackburn said. “Luckily, Kevin identified a private facility half a mile from the two nearest job sites, and we contracted with them to use their back lot for our laydown area.”

Working around traffic and more

On the very first job Wheeler Electric tackled in the spring and summer of 2022—the signal installation near Madison High School at the corner of 12th and University Boulevard, replacing an old four-way stop—the team was presented with challenges right out of the gate.

“Kevin saw that the power lines in that area were way too low for a traffic signal, so we needed city engineers to arrange for local utility Rocky Mountain Power to raise their lines so that we could install the new signal,” Blackburn said. “We got that in motion right away, and while we were waiting for that to happen, we prepared the site by excavating and using our pressure digger to drill the three 12-foot holes we needed.” 

Wheeler Electric Inc.’s large pressure digging truck
came in handy for its traffic signaling projects.

Blackburn said that the intersection’s proximity to an active canal required his team to work with city engineers to move the traffic pole and shield it with a corrugated tube underground to prevent water intrusion during drilling. 

“We also had to work around underground power lines and fiber optics going to the school and nearby businesses, which required us to locate optimal places for our new trenches, holes and conduit under the road,” he said, adding that the team had to engage a traffic control subcontractor to ensure the job was completed before school started. “Luckily, our utility and engineering contacts were great to work with, and everyone collaborated effectively.”

The next job, at 7th South Street and South Yellowstone Highway, involved the addition of new lanes and was located next to railroad tracks, which required Wheeler Electric to ensure coordination between Union Pacific Railroad and Rocky Mountain Power. 

“We took down an existing pole, removed the existing pole base, and installed a larger pole base and a higher-capacity pole to accommodate the additional lanes,” Blackburn said. “Based on the amount of traffic and the need for traffic control in this area, we did all of the underground work we could in summer 2022 (including digging, trenching, installing ground boxes, setting control bases and pouring concrete), then waited for delivery of the poles and signal cabinets, which were held up by pandemic-era supply chain delays, and scheduled the rest of our work at night when traffic died down.” 

At that point, Wheeler Electric’s eight-man team worked all night on the ground, in bucket trucks and pulling wire across the street to perform the necessary overhead work, which was ultimately completed in spring 2023. 

Because the job site was an active roadway, “we had to ensure that the signals were up and running every morning during that job,” Blackburn said.

He said that the signal cabinets were also delayed for their third and final installation, at North 2nd East and Stationery Place. The rest of the job went smoothly, however, as installation of the necessary conduit bores and pedestrian signal poles and heads was easily handled by two team members and didn’t require traffic control.

While each location presented the team with its own set of challenges, Blackburn said all three of the jobs required Wheeler Electric to schedule around Mother Nature.

“Our area typically experiences below-zero temperatures and anywhere from 1–2 feet of snow on the ground in the dead of winter, so we generally don’t do any outside work from December to March. Otherwise we’d have to take steps to heat the ground,” Blackburn said of the hiatus the team took during the cold-weather months in late 2022 to early 2023.

Superb signals

Since completion, Blackburn said Rexburg and its stakeholders have been thriving.

“The new traffic signals led to new buildings and businesses popping up throughout the city, as the signals made these spaces safer and more accessible,” he said. “Everything is working great, and all of the new signals have improved traffic flow in their intended areas. We love working with the city of Rexburg and those signals marked the beginning of even more construction, which has kept the city engineer busy.”

Among key takeaways for Blackburn and his colleagues, the project underscored the importance of investing in their crew’s training and development.

“Because we knew Kevin Cameron would be retiring soon and was a wealth of knowledge and experience, we used it as an opportunity to train new foreman Ethan Robinson,” Blackburn said, adding that Robinson was assigned to shadow Cameron to learn the industry veteran’s techniques, tips and tricks in the field. 

“Building your next-generation players is a win-win and an investment that we made in the future of our company,” he said.

Another lesson learned was the value of thorough estimating and accounting.

“Our laydown area was 7 miles away from one of our three installations and we lost some money when it came to mobilizing that job site, so it’s helpful to put quality time into estimating when it comes to mobilizing and demobilizing,” he said, adding that, “having our own equipment and pressure digger as well as our own certified crane operator in-house saved us money and gave us a competitive edge on this job.”

Finally, Blackburn confirmed that clear communication is essential on jobs like this one, which featured many moving parts.

“It’s a coordinated dance,” he said, “but luckily we had open lines of communication, worked with great team members at the city of Rexburg, Rocky Mountain Power and Union Pacific Railroad, and everyone was on the same page.”

Looking back, Blackburn found his colleagues’ level of expertise and teamwork especially rewarding. 

“One of the most enjoyable parts of this project was working with someone extremely knowledgeable like Kevin Cameron,” he said. “There’s something to be said about watching someone who’s truly in their element.”

“Streetlighting and traffic signals are one of our company’s niches and upgrading a community’s traffic signals really prepares them for continued growth, so this project was extremely gratifying for the whole team.” Blackburn said. “It’s exciting to be able to commission the system we installed, turn it on, and see it working perfectly, and we’re so proud to have been part of this great development for Rexburg.”

wheeler electric inc.