Last updated on September 4, 2019
Charlemont Municipal Fiber Network
Selectboard Status Report
August 31, 2019
Summary
Project schedule still has considerable uncertainty. We hope to be operational by the end of 2020, but this is depending on the utility make-ready schedule. The project is generally on budget. As of the end of August, $186,380.50 has been expended out of the state grant funds, but the bulk of the make-ready expenses will start to be paid in September and we may need to start doing some limited borrowing to cover these expenses. We are meeting with Unibank on September 4. A construction contract for the network hub room has been awarded. Permitting and procurement for other parts of the distribution network are underway (town hall exterior, Hawk Hill Road, Heath Stage Terrace, west end of Tower Road, east end of South River Road).
Schedule
There are no significant updates on the overall schedule at this time. The schedule still has a lot of uncertainty, but we are hoping to have the network operational by the end of 2020, depending on the utility make-ready timeline.
After utility reconciliation is complete (hopefully this month), we should know more. This should give us a scheduled date for the utilities to complete the make-ready work so that construction of the distribution network can begin. We are currently estimating that the utilities will complete their work by March, 2020, but this may be unrealistic.
We now have all of the utility pole applications back from Verizon, but are still waiting for most of the applications to come back from National Grid. We expect these to be done in the next couple of weeks.
Budget
With the utility pole applications back from Verizon, we are starting to get some idea of the make-ready costs. Based on what we have received so far, it looks like our make-ready costs will exceed the state estimate, so we should be eligible for additional funding from the Last-Mile Contingency Fund to cover the difference. We won’t know the extent of the excess make-ready costs until we receive the rest of our utility applications from National Grid. We have been in contact with Bill Ennen about getting an advance on our contingency funding (which will likely be 75% of our estimated eligibility) to help with cash flow. We are meeting with Unibank on September 4 to discuss financing options.
So far, the project is still on budget, assuming the state will cover the additional make-ready expenses. An expense tracking report is available here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dh_kFVuKwnovJTOfEz86h4cxdb1348J0
Working with Amy Wales, we will be monitoring the project cash flow to attempt to delay borrowing as much as possible. Ideally, we would like to complete make-ready without needing to start permanent borrowing, which would happen only when we begin construction of the distribution network. We may need to do some small amount of borrowing now, however, to cover make-ready expenses, depending on the total make-ready costs and the size of the advance we can get from the Last-Mile Contingency Fund.
Design and engineering were initially completed under budget, but we need additional utility pole survey work to reroute the distribution network on South River Road to avoid a railroad crossing, which will push our design and engineering costs to approximately 1% over budget (about $1000). As reported above, our make-ready expenses are likely to exceed our total state-estimated budget of $620,000. We do not yet know the total make-ready costs, but the excess should be covered by the Last-Mile Contingency Fund.
Utility make-ready work
Pole applications have been submitted to both Verizon and National Grid with WG+E acting as our pole agent. All applications are back from Verizon and all but one have been reconciled. Only three of the 16 applications are back from National Grid, but we are expecting the rest in the next week or two.
We finalized an aerial license agreement with National Grid. They were unwilling to accede to certain terms requested by our town counsel, but at the recommendation of town counsel and EOHED the town signed the agreement.
Distribution Network
We are working on a number of tasks in preparing for putting our distribution network construction out to bid:
- Heath Stage Terrace
The homes on Heath Stage Terrace are served by underground (direct buried) utilities. We received initial cost estimates from WG+E for both aerial and underground solutions, but the underground solution was more expensive. We chose to put a potential underground solution out to bid to see if we could get a better price on the underground solution by using a local contractor to do the installation (rather than WG+E). Other towns have been able to save money in this way. We will decide on the aerial vs. underground solution for Heath Stage Terrace once we have received additional quotes on the underground solution.
We put the underground out for quotes through FRCOG. Quotes are due back by September 12. The bid package is available here: https://charlemontconnect.org/bids-sought-for-conduit-excavation-and-installation/
2. Hawk Hill Road / Deer Run Lane
A half-mile section of Hawk Hill Road currently has underground utilities. We received quotes from WG+E for three solutions, the cheapest of which was fully underground at $44,000. We put this work out for quotes through FRCOG along with Heath Stage Terrace to see if we could potentially save money by using a local contractor for the installation work.
3. Town Hall Interior
We awarded the interior construction work on the network equipment room in the town hall basement to OBear Construction. We expect them to do the work this fall.
4. Town Hall Exterior
We have completed local permitting and we have secured and recorded aerial easements from both abutters to permit our desired network design, which includes underground conduit coming through two separate paths from the East and the West. We have prepared bid specifications and are currently soliciting quotes for this work. We have a proposal from WG+E for materials and inspections and are planning to use WG+E in this capacity. Installation of the town hall emergency generator and related electrical conduit will be done separately, managed by the fire chief, as this work has to follow federal procurement rules.
The bid specifications are available here: http://charlemont-ma.us/annoucements/town-hall-exterior-conduit-excavation-and-installation-rfq-available
5. Neighboring town agreement with Rowe
No change in status.
We have reached verbal consensus with Rowe to provide access to cabling in Rowe to reach the upper end of Maxwell Road from Legate Hill Road via Tatro Road in Rowe. In exchange, Rowe is requesting access to cabling in Charlemont from the border on Zoar Road to the Charlemont town hall to be used by Rowe for redundant backhaul.
We have a verbal agreement on a draft agreement, which we will bring before the select board. We are awaiting finalization of an agreement with Heath before proceeding.
6. Neighboring town agreement with Heath
We are working with Heath on an agreement to provide access to cabling in Heath to reach Warner Hill via a long route from South Heath Road in Charlemont through the Heath network to Warner Hill. This is the path followed by the existing electric utilities.
We are working with Heath on an agreement to provide access to cabling in Heath to reach Bassett Road from South Heath Road via South Road in Heath.
We sent a draft proposal to Heath and we are awaiting feedback.
7. Railroad crossings
Based on a review by WG+E an in consultation with EOHED, we are in the process of revising our distribution network design to try to eliminate all railroad crossings not at public ways and limit the number of public-way railroad crossings to two (one at Route 8A at Long Bridge and the other at the west end of Tower Road). There are four parts to the design changes. Each part is separate and they are going on in parallel:
- Long Bridge. The preferred solution requires National Grid to relocate one pole to allow us to make an unobstructed railroad crossing at Route 8A. Through WG+E, we are working with National Grid to see if this will make this change as part of our make-ready work. If not, then the second option is to install a single town-owned pole near the railroad tracks to provide a route for the crossing.
- South River Road. The preferred solution is to reroute the distribution network to reach South River Road using about 20 Verizon-only utility poles on South River Road east of Berkshire East. Through WG+E, we have requested PVC (Precision Valley) to gather the necessary utility pole data so that we can file an additional utility make-ready application for these poles.
- Tower Road. The preferred solution is to extend the utility line on the west end of Tower Road to cross the railroad tracks and meet up with the existing utility line at the east end of Tower Road by installing 8 new town-owned utility poles. We have received a design from WG+E and an initial cost estimate for this change. The next step is to schedule a pole hearing and the MLP will be submitting a hearing request to the select board.
- West Hawley Road. There is one house on West Hawley Road where the utilities reach the house via a non-public-way railroad crossing. We are currently evaluating alternative solutions for this house, including a potential wireless extension of the distribution network.
Reconnect Grant
With the approval and support of the select board, we applied for a USDA Reconnect grant. We applied under a combined grant/loan program for a matched grant and loan of up to $1,000,000 each. This grant is a long shot, but it was free to apply (outside of a couple of hundred dollars in legal expenses). We hope to know if our application was successful in 3 to 6 months.
There are no updates on the status of our application.
Charlemont Connect website
We continue to communicate project status from our web site www.charlemontconnect.org, dedicated to the fiber network project. We are posting to this website regularly to communicate status and engage with residents. The website also pushes updates to the Charlemont Fiber Facebook page. In addition, there is a mailing list signup to allow for email notifications.
Glossary
Aerial License Agreement. The master contracts between the town and the utilities (separate contracts for National Grid and Verizon) covering the terms for leasing space on the utility poles.
Customer Connections / Drops. Cabling from the nearest distribution network tap (MST) to a network interface box on the outside of the house or building, then inside to another small unit (ONT) which is connected to a wireless (or optionally non-wireless) router that provides internet service. A “cold drop” includes just the cabling to the outside of the house without any inside wiring.
Distribution Network. The main fiber optic lines running from the network equipment room in the basement of the town hall and along most of the roads in town. The distribution network terminates at “taps” (called MSTs) located on utility poles near each serviceable house or structure.
ISP / Internet Service Provider. A company that provides internet service on a network and performs functions like billing and customer support. The town will contract with a third-party internet service provider to provide service to residents using the town network.
MLP / Municipal Lighting Plant. A legal entity created by the town to allow the town to supply internet service to residents. It is called a lighting plant because the applicable state laws were originally written to allow towns to create local electric utilities. The MLP functions much like a town department.
Utility Pole Lease. The town will lease 12 inches of space on most of the utility poles in town to allow us to run the fiber network throughout the town. We will pay an annual lease fee per pole.