caltrans – Steve Blum's Blog

Microtrenching bill lands in California senate with the wrong answer to the right question

7 April 2020 by Steve Blum
caltrans, community networks, infrastructure, microtrenching, sb1206

Microtrenching – cutting a narrow slit in a road, inserting fiber and sealing it with glue – is an excellent tool that can result in faster broadband infrastructure deployment at lower costs. But like any tool, it’s only useful when it suits the job at hand. One of the main reasons – I’d say the main reason – the technique isn’t used more often is that there’s no set of best practices, design specifications and employment parameters that is commonly accepted by broadband companies, utility operators and, crucially, the public works and transportation officials who are responsible for road construction and maintenance.… More

Caltrans floats “Dig Smart” ideas to put more broadband conduit in the ground

10 March 2020 by Steve Blum
ab1549, broadband, caltrans, conduit, public policy

California’s department of transportation, AKA Caltrans, is a step closer to actively collaborating with broadband service providers and local governments to put more conduit in California’s thousands of miles of state highways and make it available. It published a Dig Smart white paper that summarises “dig once” policies that have already been adopted by cities and other states. Those policies are intended to ease the way for telecoms companies to install conduit when road construction or utility excavation projects happen, and to encourage them to take advantage of the opportunity.… More

Caltrans backs off requiring extra conduit in highway projects, but broadband cooperation door still open

11 August 2018 by Steve Blum
ab1549, broadband, caltrans, conduit, public policy

Caltrans updated its “user guide” for installing broadband infrastructure into highway projects. The big change is the elimination of a shadow conduit requirement – telecoms companies that take advantage of opportunities to install facilities in highway projects are no longer obligated to install extra conduit and fiber for Caltrans, at their own expense.

On the whole, it’s not a killer change. The more independent broadband infrastructure in the ground – Caltrans is nothing if not independent – the better.… More

Actually, there is broadband money in the big federal budget bill

23 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, caltrans, conduit, hr4986, public policy

Update: Trump signed it. Done deal.

Update: the U.S. senate approved the bill this morning, now it’s up to president Donald Trump to sign or veto it.

An extra $600 million was added to federal broadband subsidies for rural areas, in the mammoth, all-in-one spending bill passed by the house of representatives yesterday, and up for a vote in the U.S. senate today. I missed it Wednesday night as I was skimming through its two thousand-plus pages, but the sharp eyed journos at Politico’s Morning Tech newsletter caught it.… More

Dig once, broadband spectrum added to federal budget bill

22 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, caltrans, conduit, hr4986, public policy

Broadband is getting a boost in the mammoth spending bill under consideration today in the U.S. house of representatives. But not cash.

Instead, the deal negotiated by republican and democratic congressional leaders rolls in a telecoms bill unanimously approved earlier this month by the house of representatives. It includes some useful, if mild, dig once requirements for federally funded highway projects – state transportation agencies will have to share construction plans, but not necessarily trenches, with Internet service providers and local agencies – and it frees up 255 MHz of spectrum for broadband use.… More

Unanimous dig once vote puts broadband conduit in federal highway plans

11 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, caltrans, conduit, hr4986, public policy

Broadband infrastructure, and service providers, will have to be included in planning done for federally funded highway projects if, as expected, the U.S. senate goes along with a bill – house resolution 4986, aka the Ray Baum act – passed by the house of representatives last week. State transportation departments wouldn’t be required to include conduit and other telecoms facilities in projects, but they would have to share their construction plans with broadband companies and other state and local agencies, and do a minimal amount of coordination.… More

Caltrans opens the road for broadband projects

12 February 2018 by Steve Blum
ab1549, broadband, caltrans, conduit, public policy

California highway projects are now broadband projects too. Or can be. Caltrans wrapped up development of standard rules and procedures for adding third party conduit to highway construction projects, and published a guide for “Wired Broadband Stakeholders”. It covers “partnering”, which is adding a separate, third party trench to a road project, and “co-location”, which involves Caltrans and a third party both installing conduit in a Caltrans trench.

There are limits on who can participate.… More

Caltrans' broadband conduit policy posted

4 January 2018 by Steve Blum
ab1549, broadband, caltrans, conduit, public policy

Broadband companies and local governments now have standard procedures to follow when they want to add conduit to a Caltrans highway project. Click here for the handbook. I’ll have more details in the coming days, once the dust clears from CES and the start of a new legislative year at the California capitol.

Caltrans agrees to add conduit to highway projects

23 April 2017 by Steve Blum
ab1549, broadband, caltrans, conduit, public policy

Slow is a lot better than Stop.

More broadband conduit might be going into California highway projects over the next few years. A deal was struck between a north coast assemblyman – Jim Wood (D – Healdsburg) – and Caltrans: Wood drops his current effort to write conduit obligations into law, and Caltrans promises to rewrite its policies to be more accomodating to broadband infrastructure. According to a press release from Wood’s office…

“Caltrans has been a willing participant in discussions during the past two years as we have tried to move the needle on expanding Californian’s access to broadband,” said Wood.

… More

Caltrans conduit bill introduced in Sacramento, again

24 February 2017 by Steve Blum
ab980, broadband, caltrans, public policy

Another try at getting Caltrans to think about broadband when it designs highways is underway in Sacramento. Assemblyman Jim Wood (D – Healdsburg) introduced assembly bill 980 last week, which would require Caltrans to “install a broadband conduit capable of supporting fiber optic communication cables” in a limited set of highway construction projects.

The limited set consists of priority areas as determined by the California Public Utilities Commission. In 2014, the CPUC endorsed a priority list of 182 communities in 47 counties that regional broadband consortia had identified as lacking adequate broadband service.… More