In 1967, John Collins founded Collins Water Works LLC after working as a welder on the locks and dams of the Arkansas River. About 20 years later, his sons, JT and Wes, joined the family business.

“My dad bought a dozer and backhoe to start, and over the years, he put in miles and miles of underground utilities with that type of equipment,” recalled JT. “I came on full time in 1988 and talked him into buying an excavator and eventually a directional boring machine. We progressed with the times.” 

While the equipment has changed, the focus of Collins Water Works has largely remained the same, according to JT.

“He started out installing water and sewer lines, and for the most part, that’s what we have stuck with,” JT said. “We mostly contract with rural water districts and small towns that are upgrading their systems. Our scope of work means we take up the paving, tie into the existing lines and repave. We have also done quite a bit of boring for communications companies the last few years. Everything is hard bid, and we really don’t sub anything out.”

That doesn’t mean JT won’t team up with other contractors. In fact, it’s common for Collins Water Works to combine forces with Lonehickory Cattle LLC, which Wes owns and operates. Wes left Collins Water Works and started Lonehickory Cattle as a custom hay baling and cattle trading business in 2007, then transitioned to construction in 2009.

“We moved onto the place where we live, and there was one tree—a hickory—and that’s where the name came from,” shared Wes. “When I decided to get back into construction, I wanted to focus on what I knew and was familiar with, so like Collins Water Works, the bulk of Lonehickory’s work is water and sewer installs for rural water districts and municipalities where we are replacing line that’s been in place 60, 70, 80 years or more. We put in the new line, tie into the existing services and repave. When our dad passed away, Collins Water Works was a little behind, so I said that I would help get things caught up. JT and I have been working together ever since.”

Same work, different sizes

Both businesses are based in eastern Oklahoma and cover the entire state. JT’s wife, Jimmie, is a member of Collins Water Works and helps with bookwork, and Wes’ wife, Kari, is an owner of Lonehickory Cattle. JT and Jimmie’s son, Johnathan, will soon join Collins Water Works, and their son-in-law, Donovan Webb, currently works there. They are part of a staff of about five at Collins Water Works, which typically runs two to three jobs at once. Lonehickory Cattle has 40 employees.

Collins Water Works has done some relocation projects for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) as well as commercial work for the Choctaw Nation such as the storm, water and drain lines it put in last year. That project included 800 feet of 6-inch water line, along with fire hydrants for water, 200 feet of 2-inch domestic water, a small section of 36-inch storm drain, 200 feet of 24-inch storm drain, and abut 400 feet of 18-inch storm drain.

“That was an average size for us,” stated JT. “The biggest Collins Water Works has ever done was about 40 miles of various pipe, from 2-inch to 8-inch in LeFlore County that took us about a year to finish and was across various terrains. We encountered quite a bit of rock. The biggest pipe we’ve ever done is 36-inch ductile iron.”

Wes said he likes highly challenging projects, often focusing on ones that others don’t want to take on.

“We’re getting into bigger work,” noted Wes. “We have five crews, so it’s hard for us to just pick out the smaller stuff. We need to be a little more versatile to keep everyone working.”

Dependable equipment from KSM

For a recent ODOT job near Pawnee, a Lonehickory Cattle crew performed a sewer relocation that was part of widening Highway 18. It involved putting in roughly 3,000 feet of 24-inch concrete pipe, and the lines ran 12 to 14 feet deep.

“We bought a Komatsu PC290LCi excavator for that job because we can dig the ditch to grade without overexcavating, and it’s big enough to handle the trench boxes,” explained Wes. “Because we’re not taking out too much material, we’re not having to replace it with extra bedding, so it gives us cost savings. We realized that had we used it on a previous job, we could have dug to grade perfectly without overcutting and saved a lot of time and expense. It’s a game-changer for us.”

The Komatsu PC290LCi-11 Intelligent Machine Control (IMC) excavator is one of several pieces of equipment Lonehickory Cattle has bought and rented from Kirby-Smith Machinery Inc. (KSM) since 2016 with the help of McAlester-based Territory Manager Ron Allen. In addition to Komatsu PC130 and PC170 excavators, Allen has assisted with the purchase of Komatsu WA200 wheel loaders, a HAMM H 16i vibratory roller and a Terramac RT14R rotating rubber-tracked crawler carrier. It also recently rented a Komatsu D71PXi-24 IMC dozer.

“Dependability in equipment is important, but the main thing we look for is a good salesman and a service department that will back us if there is an issue, and we get that with Ron and Kirby-Smith,” said JT. “They are always very responsive. We had a relationship with him before he came to Kirby-Smith, and that’s why we started looking at Komatsu.”

Wes added, “The more we use Komatsu, the more we like it, so we’re glad Ron convinced us to try it out. He’s helped us get into other brands that have maximized our production and saved us as well. For instance, the Terramac RT14R has been great. We used it on a landfill project to run on a narrow sewer lagoon dike. The rotation means you are always moving forward and can dump at any angle, which saved us a bunch of time, and the low ground pressure is another advantage. It allowed us to work in the rain without tearing up the ground. We rented it for that job, then ended up buying one.”

Maintain focus on quality work

Neither Wes nor JT plans to retire anytime soon. Their focus is on continuing to offer quality work done on time.

“Everyone says to retire, but I want to keep working, taking a vacation here and there, and enjoy life,” JT commented. “I’m satisfied with where we are.”

Wes added, “From my end, I think there is an opportunity to branch out and do some more sitework if it makes sense, but we’re not going to just jump into it. Our goal is to do all we can do and be good at it. We want to keep the reputation we have for good work.”

*The opinions expressed here are from the end user as quoted. The results described herein are those of these end users under certain conditions. Individual results may vary.

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