Wyoming City Uses HDD for Fiber-Optic Network Installation
As work on installing its fiber-optic network spreads through Cody, TCT West is striving to minimize the inconvenience to residents, according to the Cody Enterprise.
General Manager Chris Davidson says the ongoing 20-month project is designed to be as non-invasive as possible.
Meanwhile, residents in the Glendale Park-Olive Glenn area could choose to hook up to TCT service next month, and the Sunset School area could be served by Christmas.
“We are utilizing directional drilling for the work as much as possible,” Davidson said. “And we’re working to avoid as many traffic closures as we can.
“Directional drilling will mean we won’t be totally closing streets,” he added. “We may have to close a lane once in awhile, but we’ll use more traffic control as opposed to closing traffic lanes.”
TCT has had to close one street so far, 16th Street east of the Park County Complex at the location of their main hub.
“The closure of 16th wasn’t because of running the fiber optics, but because of a mishap with the drilling,” Davidson said. “The crew hit an underground water line that wasn’t marked during survey work.
“So we had to tear up the street and repair the water line and retrieve the drill bit,” he added. “That wasn’t a closure we anticipated.”
Davidson said residents should expect access to their homes to be mostly uninterrupted.
TCT also will use directional drilling to connect homes to the main line. Davidson said that means homeowners won’t see their lawns trenched up if they choose to connect to the network.
“We’ve done the first two sections of town with minimal blockage to homes,” he said. “The few times we’ve had interruptions they have been short.
“We may have to temporarily close alleys because of running lines,” he added. “But we shouldn’t block people from their driveways or homes for extended periods.”
The project will soon cross the intersection of 17th and Stampede and begin in the areas heading east toward Sunset School. There will be two sections of work done in that area for about the next two months.
Depending on weather, TCT hopes to complete work on top of the hill to the south before beginning work in downtown areas in spring 2010.
“The work in the first two areas ��“ around Glendale Park and Olive Glenn golf course ��“ have gone smoothly,” Davidson said. “So far we are on schedule and we’re hoping for the weather to hold and that we’re able to stay on schedule.”
Service will be available to those homes as soon as the main feed line is complete.
“Once we have the main line installed (in an area), then we will start running the fiber to the homes as people have given us permission,” Davidson said. “Once the main line is complete and we start hooking up people, it should be within a month the first subscribers will be using the network.”
That means those homes in the Glendale Park-Olive Glenn areas that choose TCT service could begin to receive it in mid-October, and areas around Sunset School could have TCT service by Christmas.
The company has had to do some work to coincide with city of Cody road work.
“We had to go into Valley View Subdivision early and run some piping,” Davidson said. “We won’t be running the fiber optic in there until sometime in 2010, so there are all these orange pipes sticking up.
“Public Works Director Steve Payne had us do that while the city did some chip seal work in the subdivision because he was worried about the street being torn up twice,” he added. “We’re hoping now that we’ve shown that we won’t be tearing up streets that much, we won’t have to do that again because no one likes to see those orange pipes left sticking up.”
