Can’t go round it, Can’t go over it, CAN go under it.
The City of Anacortes in Skagit County, Washington, USA were looking to deploy fibre for communication through the city but would have faced a number of substantial challenges if they used traditional fibre deployment methods. These would have prolonged the installation and required permits; some of which include:
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Road closures
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Public disruption
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Multiple jurisdictions
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Multiple permits
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Traffic management
Adding to all these usual challenges was the route itself. The Skagit river runs through the city and the fibre needed to cross it at some point along the route. If traditional methods of fibre deployment were used, crossing the river would have added a further 8Km to the route due to the bridge location and also required multiple permits.
How was this achieved?
This was where CRALEY Fibre came into the picture. Deploying fibre into the water supply pipe avoided all the traditional challenges and also enabled the addition of leak detection and asset monitoring as well as communications.
Conveniently there was a water supply pipe already in place under the river, therefore avoiding the extra 8km and all the permit delays, allowing the deployment to be achieved in a fraction of the time.
The full deployment distance is over 30KM. It is used for connecting homes and businesses, as well as for leak detection. Monitoring leaks is especially important around the difficult to reach areas such as bridges and under the river, as this is the only source of water for many residents.
Fibre in water: the obvious choice
Route information | CRALEY Fibre under river (water pipe) | Alternative Route (traditional trench) |
|---|---|---|
Installation challenges | 0 | Road crossings, Bridge crossing |
Deployment method | Water supply pipe | Trenching, Overhead |
Permits required | No | Skagit County, City of Mount Vernon, Washington State |
Days taken to deploy | 1 | Unknown |
Route distance (km) | 0.5 | 8 |