Port signs first fiber contract

Seattle-based telecommunications company CenturyLink signed on to be the first user of the Port of Whitman County’s new 170-mile fiber optic cable.

Port commissioners signed a 10-year lease to use four strands of the 144-strand fiber optic cable at a price of $135,621 a year with CenturyLink at their regular meeting last Thursday, Nov. 1. The lease includes an option for a 10-year extension.

“Build it and they shall come,” said Port Commissioner Tom Kammerzell.

Construction of the line, which connects Spokane and Clarkston through Whitman County, is nearly finished. Debbie Snell, port properties and development manager, estimated 90 percent of the cable has been installed. Snell added that a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to install several hundred feet of conduit and cable on the hillside above the Port of Wilma had just been finalized and should be completed soon.

Installation of the line was funded by a $12 million grant from the American Relief and Recovery Act of 2009.

Fiber has been laid in conduits that run in the right-of-way along state highways and county roads. Coeur d’Alene construction firm Henkels and McCoy was the lead contractor on the project.

Along with linking Spokane and Clarkston, the broadband fiber optic line includes access points for high speed data transmissions in Rosalia, Oakesdale, Tekoa, Garfield, Palouse, Colton, Colfax, Pullman and Uniontown.

The local line is part of a statewide loop being built by utility consortium Northwest Open Access Network, or NoaNet. The port’s project is part of an overall $185 million project by NoaNet to install 800 miles of fiber optic network in unserved portions of rural Washington.

NoaNet will have access to the port’s new fiber line to connect medical clinics and libraries to high-speed internet, increasing their ability to use and share online information.

Also last Thursday, port commissioners signed a contract with Outside Plant Maintenance to provide maintenance on the fiber line. The firm served as the port’s oversight during construction of the line.

The $84,000 annual contract calls for 20 hours of maintenance and monitoring a week plus emergency repair work. Outside Plant Maintenance was the only firm to submit a proposal for the port’s maintenance contract.