Mud bogs down fiber project

Muddy fields along roadsides means construction on the Port of Whitman County’s $14 million fiber optic network will have to wait awhile.

Joe Poire, port executive director, reported to port commissioners at their regular meeting last Thursday, Feb. 16, that work was set to finish the following day inside Pullman city limits.

That section, he said, is the last construction crews will be able to complete before the ground dries and state permits are acquired.

With a $12 million federal stimulus grant, contractors for the port are laying 170 miles of broadband fiber optic cable between Spokane a...