McFadden Utilities is a civils contractor based in Hertfordshire, delivering underground civils scope for telecoms and fibre network rollouts across London and the South East. Our scope covers the civils foundation beneath the telecoms network: ducting installation, trenching, chamber construction, electrical civils for new connections, and NRSWA-compliant reinstatement. We do not deliver cable blowing, fibre splicing, or telecoms commissioning. Main contractors handle that scope, and we deliver the civils that sits beneath it.
Over 40 years of water and electric civils experience makes the move into telecoms civils straightforward. The techniques are shared. Trenching, ducting, chambers, and reinstatement to NRSWA standard are the same whether the cable inside the duct is carrying water, electricity, or fibre optic. Multi-utility duct installation (shared trench for water, electric, and fibre) is already part of our everyday scope, and adds a third strand to the two we have been delivering for decades.
Target audiences on this page include FTTP rollout contractors, altnet deployment partners, telecoms main contractors, and developers delivering telecoms infrastructure alongside residential or commercial schemes. We are in active conversation with at least one telecoms prospect for civils support on upcoming schemes, and are actively looking to grow the telecoms side of the business.
The civils scope on a fibre rollout is exactly what we've been delivering for water and electric networks for 40 years. Shared trenches, different cables.
Paul McFadden, Director
Our home is Hertfordshire, with operational teams covering London, Surrey, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Berkshire, and the wider South East. The six-county patch maps well to current FTTP rollout and altnet deployment corridors across the region. For longer schemes we travel further.
Family-run since 1980. Our crews, plant, insurance, and accreditations are all in-house. For a telecoms main contractor or altnet deployment partner looking at civils capacity across the South East, that usually means one phone call, one method statement, and one accountable partner.



The civils scope telecoms main contractors, altnet deployment partners, and FTTP rollout programmes need alongside their cable installation teams.
NERS-accredited civils scope of new electricity connections. Trenching, ducting, chambers, joint bays, and substation bases for telecoms network power supplies, exchange buildings, and compound connections.
→Civils groundworks, trenching, excavation, and backfill for telecoms rollout corridors. Fast mobilisation and flexible scheduling around main contractor programmes.
→Street works reinstatement in the public highway, carriageway, and footway to NRSWA specification. Tarmac, block paving, concrete, and anti-skid finishes for telecoms civils handback.
→Telecoms-specific case studies are being added as our first schemes complete. The electrical civils project below represents the same ducting, trenching, and reinstatement techniques we bring to telecoms rollouts.
View all projects →Based in Hertfordshire with teams covering Greater London, Surrey, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Berkshire, and the wider South East. Six counties is our standard working patch. For longer FTTP corridors and multi-county rollout programmes we travel further.
The questions telecoms main contractors, altnet deployment teams, and FTTP rollout managers ask us most.
We deliver the underground civils scope on telecoms rollouts and fibre network builds. That covers ducting installation, trenching and excavation, chamber and joint bay construction, electrical civils for new connections (NERS scope), and NRSWA-compliant reinstatement. We do not deliver cable blowing, fibre splicing, or telecoms commissioning. Those sit with the main contractor, and we self-deliver the civils that sits beneath them.
Yes, we are actively building the telecoms side of the business. Altnet deployment partners, FTTP rollout contractors, and telecoms main contractors in the South East are our target audience for civils subcontracting. Our accreditation stack (NRSWA, NERS for electrical civils, ISO triple, Constructionline Gold) is set up to integrate cleanly with telecoms main contractor procurement and framework requirements.
NRSWA accreditation for street works in the public highway, NERS accreditation for the civils scope of new electricity connections (currently being re-assessed), ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001 across quality, environmental, and health and safety, Constructionline Gold, Achilles (ID 00019964), CHAS, EUSR, and Cyber Essentials. Our field teams carry CSCS cards and we operate a CDM 2015-compliant delivery model.
Yes. Multi-utility duct is already part of our everyday scope. We routinely install shared-trench infrastructure combining water service ducts, electric service ducts, and communications ducts to the spec required by each utility owner. Adding fibre as a third strand alongside water and electric civils is straightforward.
Yes. Our reinstatement teams cover carriageway and footway across tarmac, concrete, block paving, and anti-skid surfacing. NRSWA-accredited sign-off for every street works scheme, with supervisor and operative qualifications in line with the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991.
Hertfordshire, London, Surrey, Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Berkshire as standard, from our Hertfordshire depot and operational bases at Heathrow, Rickmansworth, and Staines. For longer FTTP corridors crossing multiple counties or for larger-scale altnet deployments, we travel further across the South East and nationally.
Yes. We self-deliver with our own crews and plant across all six counties, and scale teams to match rollout pace. For multi-month programmes we structure delivery around your milestones, with separate trenching, ducting, chamber, and reinstatement teams running in sequence to keep the civils cadence matched to your cable pulling and splicing programme.
Every scheme starts with a site-specific method statement and risk assessment in advance of mobilisation. We provide as-built records, test and reinstatement certificates, and NRSWA sign-off as part of our standard handover pack. We work with whichever permitting arrangement the main contractor has in place, from operating under our own streetworks licence through to delivering under the main contractor’s permit and handover requirements.
We are happy to deliver civils scope for either model. Our NRSWA and civils accreditations apply equally to work alongside existing Openreach infrastructure and to new altnet build corridors. Specific Openreach processes like PIA (Physical Infrastructure Access) accreditation sit with the cable installation contractor, not us, so we work through or alongside a PIA-registered main contractor.
Yes. Electrical civils for telecoms infrastructure (new power connections to exchanges, compounds, and equipment cabinets) is part of our NERS scope. That covers trenching, ducting, chambers, joint bays, and substation bases for the power supply side of a telecoms build, delivered to DNO-adoption standard.
From a single-corridor ducting install to a multi-phase FTTP rollout programme, we welcome the conversation. Over 40 years of civils experience, NRSWA-accredited, family-run since 1980. One phone call away.
Phone: 01707 648 420
Email: info@tonymcfadden.co.uk