Winter road closures halt Port's fiber optic project

Whitman County has closed off its seasonal roads for the winter, meaning construction on the Port of Whitman County’s $14 million fiber optic network will have to wait until spring.

Debbie Snell, port properties and development manager, reported to port commissioners at their regular meeting last Thursday, Nov. 3, that remaining work to install conduit in about eight miles of county roadsides will have to be finished next year.

The cable itself, said Snell, is scheduled to arrive Feb. 29. It will be blown by high pressure air systems through conduit which has already been installed.

With a $12 million federal stimulus grant, contractors for the port are laying a total of 170 miles of broadband fiber optic cable between Spokane and Clarkston. The line runs primarily in the right-of-ways along state highways and county roads.

The network runs along Spokane County roads from Spokane to Rosalia, then runs south along state Highways 270 and 27 through Oakesdale, Garfield and Palouse before reaching Pullman. The line then runs along county roads through Colton and Uniontown before descending the Snake River breaks to connect to an existing fiber line at the Port of Wilma. Secondary lines also run from Pullman to Colfax through Albion, and from Oakesdale to Tekoa along Highway 27.

Snell said crews will be installing conduit in Pullman this week and may finish the city by winter.

Annual winter load limits were instituted on Whitman County’s gravel roads Nov. 1.

The port’s project is just a part of an overall $185 million project by utility consortium Northwest Open Access Network, or Noanet. Noanet’s project will install 800 miles of fiber optic network in unserved portions of rural Washington.

Initially, the fiber will be used to connect medical clinics and libraries to high-speed internet, increasing their ability to use and share online information.

The port will own the line when finished, and officials with the agency hope to lease access to the cable to private internet firms to bring high-speed service to private customers.

Henkels and McCoy of Coeur d’Alene is lead contractor. The firm’s bid of $7,365,925.85 was the lowest of the nine firms to quote a price on the project. Estimated construction cost from the port’s engineering firm, HR, was $9,137,273.