Slashdot Mirror
Google Fiber To Pay Nearly $4 Million To Louisville In Exit Deal (wdrb.com)
As Google Fiber prepares to leave Louisville, Kentucky, Google has agreed to pay the city government $3.84 million to fix damage to city streets. "The payments, to be made over 20 months, will cover removing fiber cables and sealant from roads, milling and paving streets 'where needed' and removing Google's above-ground infrastructure," reports WDRB, citing a news release from Mayor Greg Fischer's office. From the report: Google Fiber also agreed to donate $150,000 to the Community Foundation of Louisville to support Metro's "digital inclusion" efforts, which include "refurbishing used computers for low-income individuals and the enrollment of public housing residents in low-cost internet access through other companies providing service in Louisville," according to the mayor's office. Google Fiber, a unit of the Silicon Valley tech giant, said Feb. 7 that it would abandon the Louisville market after running into too many problems with the micro-trenching technique it used to install its fiber-optic cables as shallow as two inches below the pavement surface of city streets. Louisville, which lobbied for years to get Google Fiber, has the distinction of being the first city to lose the super-fast internet service. The report notes that Google Fiber only reached a small slice of the city, estimating that the service was only available to, at most, about 11,000 households.
I've worked with microduct under slots cut in the street. Done properly, it works well.
Two inches down? That's nuts. You have to pack sand on top of the duct so it stays in place and then seal the sand so it doesn't wash away. And the seal doesn't stay. You have to keep redoing it until the next time the road is paved.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Couldn't the city just have taken over the cables at least? Why do they have to be removed?
I can see repairing the damage but it seems excessive to go back and remove everything installed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Cost will depend on street type and paving life cycle.
On low traffic streets they can go back and pull the cable out and fill the slot with an elastomeric tar. This will work reasonably well until it's time to mill and fill the surface as part of their pavement maintenance as long as they keep re-sealing it every year it should be fine. Given the local climate they probably don't crack seal yearly like the northern states with freeze thaw cycles so this will likely cost the city more than it would elsewhere where annual crack sealing is common. But even 2 inch wide cracks can be sealed, and the linear cut will make it easier once the cable is gone (the cable would expand/contract at different rates than the surrounding asphalt and sealant).
cover removing fiber cables and sealant from roads
Can anyone figure out why the city would want them to remove the cables and sealant? Some other outfit could come along and make use the already laid cable, no?