Upper Midwest · MN · ND · SD · IA · WI
Underground and aerial construction across the Upper Midwest.
Miller Utilities builds whole-city fiber networks, drills utility-scale directional bores under highways, rivers, and rail, and installs municipal watermain up to 24 inches without opening the street. Municipalities, internet service providers, and developers hire us for scope at scale.
Regionals · No. 87
since 1987
MN · ND · SD · IA · WI
up to 24 inches
fiber builds
family of companies
Capabilities
Six capabilities, one contractor,
one schedule
Most underground builds are not one method. They are plowed mileage between bored crossings, with excavation at the structures and aerial where the route goes overhead. We run all of it in-house, so the seams between methods are a scheduling decision rather than a negotiation between contractors.
Whole-city builds
We have built fiber to an entire city.
Miller Utilities delivered the full-city fiber build in Hastings, Minnesota, which is also where our yard is. A whole-city build is not one large job. It is several thousand small ones running at once, and it holds its schedule only if the crews boring the crossings, plowing the runs, blowing the fiber, and restoring the boulevards are coordinating rather than negotiating.
- Boring, plowing, blowing, and restoration crews working one plan instead of four contracts
- Every street crossing bored rather than open-cut, so the city stays open while it is built
- Block-by-block close-out, instead of a whole city torn up waiting on one restoration pass
- Crews sized against the schedule, drawn from an 80-person family of companies
Why Miller Utilities
What owners are actually
buying when they pick us
A bid number is easy to compare. What is harder to compare, and what decides whether a build lands on schedule, is who owns the equipment, who owns the seams between scopes, and who is still answering the phone at close-out.
Our own rigs and crews
Drill rigs, plows, locators, mud systems, and bucket trucks are ours. Nothing on the critical path of your build is waiting on a rental yard or a subcontractor's backlog.
The whole build under one contract
Boring, plowing, blowing, excavation, waterline, and aerial. The expensive delays on a mixed build happen at the seams between methods, and one contractor removes the seam.
We go where the build is
Crews mobilize across 5 states. Travel is normal for us rather than an exception, and mobilization is priced into the bid instead of discovered later.
Utility scale, not site scale
Whole-city fiber, highway and rail crossings, and municipal watermain up to 24 inches. We bid the work that is measured in miles and crossings rather than in outlets and fixtures.
Documentation at close-out
Bore logs, placement records, and as-builts handed over when the job closes. An owner has to live with this infrastructure for decades and should know where it actually is.
Depth behind the crew
Part of an 80-person family of companies, so crew size scales with the build and a large scope does not depend on one crew being free.
Where we build
Five states, one crew base
Miller Utilities works across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Our yard and office are in Hastings, Minnesota, but very little of the work happens there. Crews mobilize to the build, stay on it, and come home when it closes.
States we build in
- MinnesotaMN
- North DakotaND
- South DakotaSD
- IowaIA
- WisconsinWI
Distance is a logistics question for us, not a reason to say no. Our crews mobilize to the build, work out of the job, and price mobilization into the bid, so a project three states from our yard is quoted the same way as one across town.
Who we are
Roots in underground construction since 1987
Miller Utilities is an underground and aerial construction contractor working across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. We build the parts of a network that never get seen: directional bores under highways and rivers, plowed conduit across open country, blown fiber, municipal watermain, and the pole line and strand that carry it overhead. Municipalities, internet service providers, and developers hire us for scope at scale, from a single long crossing to a whole-city build.
The underground experience did not start with the Miller name on the truck. It came with Kruse Underground, which had been drilling and trenching since 1987 and joined Miller in May 2020. Today Miller Utilities is part of an 80-person family of companies, which is what lets us put a crew on a whole-city build without leaving the rest of the schedule uncovered.
How a project starts
From bid request to as-builts
Nothing here is unusual, which is the point. A bid built on assumptions is what produces change orders later, so we spend the time at scope review instead.
- 1
Request a bid
Send the scope: plans, a route, a permit set, or a description of the crossing. Enough to start is enough.
- 2
Scope review
We come back with questions before we come back with a number. Soils, crossings, restoration standard, and who pulls which permit.
- 3
Schedule
Crews, equipment, and mobilization committed against your dates, with the sequence of methods laid out along the route.
- 4
Build
Bore, plow, blow, dig, and restore, closing out in sections rather than leaving the whole route open. As-builts at handover.
FAQ
What owners ask before they bid us
Not covered here? Email info@millermn.com or call (651) 529-1527.
Underground and aerial utility infrastructure. Directional boring, cable and conduit plowing, fiber blowing, excavation, municipal waterline, and aerial pole line and overhead placement. Most of our work is fiber and telecom construction, municipal water and sewer, and the utility scope on developments, across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Miller Utilities is based in Hastings, Minnesota, but travel is normal for our crews rather than an exception. We mobilize to the build, and mobilization is priced into the bid so there are no surprises on a job three states from our yard.
Yes, and it is the work we are built for. A full-city build is several thousand small jobs running at once, so it lives or dies on whether the boring, plowing, blowing, and restoration crews are coordinating or negotiating. Keeping all of that under one contract is the single biggest schedule protection an owner can buy.
Up to 24 inches, which covers most municipal watermain transmission and distribution crossings as well as large multi-duct telecom packages. That capability is what lets an owner route a main or a duct bank under a highway, a rail crossing, a river, or a downtown street instead of open-cutting it.
Send the scope. Plans, a route, a permit set, or even a description of the crossing is enough to start. Email info@millermn.com or call (651) 529-1527, and we will come back with questions before we come back with a number, because a bid built on assumptions helps nobody.
Both. We take full underground and aerial packages as prime, and we are also brought in as a specialty subcontractor purely for the crossings or the boring scope on a project someone else is running. Tell us which role the project needs at scope review.
Our roots in underground construction go back to 1987, through Kruse Underground, whose crews and equipment joined Miller in May 2020. Today Miller Utilities is part of an 80-person family of companies, and the underground division was ranked number 87 on the Inc. 5000 Midwest Regionals list.
No. Miller Utilities does utility-scale and mainline work: bores, plowed conduit, watermain, and pole line. Site-level electrical, building feeders, and site lighting are handled by Miller Electrical, a separate company in the Miller family. Keeping that boundary clear means neither of us bids work the other should be doing.
Request a bid
Send us the scope.
Plans, a route, a permit set, or a description of the crossing. We will come back with questions before we come back with a number, because a bid built on assumptions helps nobody.
- info@millermn.com
- Building across MN, ND, SD, IA, WI
- Boring, plowing, blowing, excavation, waterline, and aerial
Request a bid
Tell us about the project and an estimator will follow up.