[PLUG-TALK] Wail! Google fiber coming

Benjamin Kerensa bkerensa at ubuntu.com
Thu Apr 11 01:33:51 UTC 2013


Yeah so they could totally do underground utility using a easement but
thats not very common on the east side from my understanding. Also one
thing to consider is that the City in 2002 put a total moratorium on
all trenching of city streets with out special exemption by the city
engineer because the roads are so poorly maintained that they felt
even if utilities did good jobs of trenching and patch their easement
back up that because of decay and lack of maintenance of surrounding
road area it would just cause the road infrastructure to crumble
more.... Even though that moratorium ended I find it unlikely BDS or
the City Engineer is going to be very open to issuing new permits for
trenching until they have funds to improve the city streets.

Sure the City could issue a general improvement bond and hope for good
rating from Moody's but considering their budget deficit I'm not sure
Portland would be a particularly attractive investment... Plus the
City would have to pay back and at this rate I don't think the
financial woes for the City are going to end any time soon.... After
all they are offering $20k a pop to city employees right now to try
and get people to retire instead of being laid off.

On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 5:53 PM, John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:05:34 -0700
> Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com> dijo:
>
>>The condition of Portland's road infrastructure would alone be a
>>blocker... Right now the City is facing a future financial nightmare
>>when it comes to the road situation... The City Council knows they
>>have to start spending major money to not only repair the roads but
>>modernize them.
>>
>>When this happens major work will be required and that creates a bad
>>situation for anyone who wants to lay fiber. Also roads in Portland
>>from my understanding are not even built out for telco like they do
>>not have existing conduits for fiber or hybrid-coax which means even
>>if Google was enticed to come here they would have to Microtrench
>>their Fiber (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVybjkF9vU) which would
>>be a risky investment since the City could at any time come through
>>with contractors and tear up the road.
>
> The main pipes for water and sewer go under the street, for sure. But
> other utilities are on an easement that the city owns under the parking
> strips. That's where the microtrenching would go, not in the street.
>
> As for paying the bill, that's what general improvement bonds are for.
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-- 
Benjamin Kerensa
http://benjaminkerensa.com
"I am what I am because of who we all are" - Ubuntu



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