DISCOVERY BAY EAST UPDATE FEB 2025
Hello again,
Happy New Year to all of you and thanks for signing up for our fiber project. As you may have guessed, construction has been delayed from previous projections.
Currently we are looking at a start date of June 2025 for mainline fiber construction in the Discovery Bay East project area. Mainline fiber is the fiber that runs along major roadways to connect the entire area. Construction of fiber to the home (we call these drops) is slated to begin in July. This will only bring fiber to the outside of building. The last step of the process (installation) is bringing the fiber inside, installing equipment, and turning on service. This last step is scheduled to start in September.
Each of these steps will take months, and the dates given above are only for anticipated start of work. Some of you will get fiber to the outside of the building early, some late, and the same for installation in the home. We will work to share a schedule of which areas will be completed in what order closer to the start of mainline construction. As we have done in our project in Quilcene, the Discovery Bay East area will be broken into PONs. PON stands for Passive Optical Network.
A PON as we have designed it is a collection of homes served by a common grouping of fibers. After mainline and drop construction is completed in a particular PON, the fiber is spliced together and tested. After the testing is reviewed and approved, we are cleared to begin in-home installations inside that completed PON. While mainline and drop construction will take place across the project area simultaneously, inside installation work is done PON by PON. Luckily there are only two PONs in your project area and less than 100 homes to connect so it should go quickly.
SCHEDULE SUMMARY:
MAINLINE CONSTRUCTION: JUNE to SEPT 2025
DROP CONSTRUCTION: JULY to SEPT 2025
INSTALLATION: SEPT to OCT 2025
Regarding the delays and our ability to meet the projected schedule: Our 200 mile, $22M Quilcene to Gardiner Project was plagued by a number of difficulties: inflation, permitting, state contract delays, contractor availability, and the sheer scale of the project. The delays in this project pushed back all other fiber projects. That said, mainline construction is now 80% complete, 1100 homes have fiber drops, and over 150 have in home service. We are comfortable moving on to the next project areas and look forward to applying lessons learned.
Some of you have inquired as to the availability of the grant funding in light of recent executive orders. Funding for this project and the majority of our awarded projects comes from the State of Washington. Some of the state funding is federal in origin but came from early COVID relief programs like the CARES act and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). These funds are not believed to be at risk as they have already been distributed.
That said, our deadline for spending our state grant funding is June of 2026 for the Discovery Bay East, Jefferson North, and Port Townsend Business fiber projects. We have to be done with all three projects by that time, and our schedule is designed to make sure we can be. Even combined, the three projects are less than 2/3 the scope of our current project. The dates above are intended to be conservative and not ambitious. If we can finish sooner we will.
NOTE: We have been in touch with some homeowners about easements and the routing of fiber to the home. These discussions were put on hold late last fall and will resume in March. More updates to follow.
Have additional questions? Visit our website for more info about monthly service options or visit our Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about each step of the PUD's fiber buildout to your home.
Once again, we thank you for your ongoing support and apologize for the delays. We look forward to starting construction later this summer.
-Will O'Donnell
Broadband and Communications Director.