KCK trench was deemed ‘not safe’ days before collapse killed construction worker
Two days before Francisco Rodriguez of Kansas City, Kansas, died on the job, a contractor in charge of marking sewer and water lines expressed concern about muddy conditions making the construction site a potential hazard.
A utilities locator with Indianapolis-based USIC noted in an 811 ticket that they were unable to mark the sewer just before 8:30 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, July 22, project records show — a step that needed to happen before work on the site was to begin.
Kansas law prohibits digging near the location of underground public utilities before they have been properly marked to prevent infrastructure damage.
“Cannot mark sewer due to the rain from yesterday, it is not safe since there is a drop off and I do not want to risk injury in case it collapses,” reads the note attached to the ticket for the fiber optic installation project.
Rodriguez, 54, was reportedly operating an excavator when the trench collapsed and he fell in Thursday afternoon. Emergency crews located his body around 11:45 p.m. after a nine-and-a-half-hour search, a Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department spokesperson said.
Dave Reno, a spokesperson for the public works department of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and KCK, told The Star that the fiber optic installation project “was done by a private company for a utility that had no affiliation with either the Unified Government or (the Board of Public Utilities).”
“The UG had no work scheduled for that site,” Reno said. “Any work contemplated was solely scheduled by the private company employing contractors on site at the time of the accident. No permits were issued as this was not a public right of way but instead was a railroad right of way.”
The status of the sewer location check was still listed as “not complete/in progress” as of Wednesday, 811 records show.
Why did construction continue?
Rodriguez was a foreman for K&W Underground, an Olathe-based contractor working to relocate fiber optic cables on behalf of Lumen Technologies, a telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana.
Asked who determined that it was safe for the construction crew to work the day Rodriguez died, K&W Underground President Bill Reidy told The Star he could not comment.
“I cannot discuss it at this point. We still have an ongoing investigation,” Reidy said in a phone call.
KCKPD’s Major Case Unit has opened a death investigation, and the Occupational Safety Health Administration and other agencies are investigating the cause of the trench collapse, police spokesperson Nancy Chartrand previously said.
A spokesperson for Lumen Technologies also cited the active investigations, saying the company is “not in a position to share additional details about project decisions or timelines at this time.”
“We are fully cooperating with K&W and relevant authorities to understand the circumstances of this incident,” spokesperson Joe Goode said in an email.
“Our thoughts remain with the family, friends, and colleagues of Francisco Rodriguez during this incredibly difficult time.”
Reno, the public works spokesperson, said that for utility location services through Kansas 811, the Unified Government and BPU contract with USIC to mark their sewer and water utilities, respectively.
“As such, It was not a BPU worker nor was it a UG worker that made the comment ‘Cannot mark sewer due to the rain from yesterday….’ That comment would have been made by the person from USIC doing the location service on behalf of both BPU and the UG,” Reno said.
811 records don’t document any utility locator returning to the construction site after deciding it was too dangerous on Tuesday, July 22.
USIC did not respond to a request for comment.
After morning thunderstorms and light afternoon rain last Monday, archived weather records show KCK did not receive any more precipitation until Thursday evening, when emergency crews were searching for Rodriguez in the collapsed trench.
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 3:55 PM.
