Broadband Project Update 1/30/2025
Take a look at the map above to see how the project is progressing in your area!
Some key pieces of information of which you should be aware:
- To make sure your address is part of the project, please reach out to Breezeline via the address portal (https://events.breezeline.us/essexcounty-youhaveachoice/original_page)! If internet difficulties impede your ability to fill out the web form, please call the County GIS office at 804-443-3490 and we’ll type in the info you relay to us over the phone!
- If you live down a long driveway/private road, make sure the owner of the road gives Breezeline permission to come down the road!
- If you have non-Miss Utility buried features (sprinklers, electric fences, etc), let Breezeline know so they don’t inadvertently find them!
The number of electrical poles (to which the aerial internet cables attach) that need major repairs or replacement is very high. For this reason, Breezeline is listing pole make-ready as a delay. Statewide, 80% of projects are experiencing delays because of this pole make-ready step. Even once poles are approved for replacing, it takes time to actually make the repairs/replacements. Once the poles are in place, the aerial attachment process is very quick.
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative is going to get 3rd party contractors to help them more rapidly move through the pole permitting process, which should hopefully speed up that process.
The Virginia Make Ready Initiative is a pot of money that is designed to help get the power poles able to receive broadband cables. It is not currently open to VATI 2023, but the General Assembly could make it so.
The alternative to attaching to the pole is to lay the cables underground. If the cost of providing service to a stretch of houses is cheaper by going underground than by replacing power poles and attaching to them, then underground is the approach to use. Breezeline has to wait for the cost estimates of making the poles ready for attachment before they can make that determination.
One other potential source of delay is when the poles go across farm fields. Once planting season begins, no work can be done on those poles until after the harvest so construction vehicles do not drive across planted crops.
GEV20 is testing going underground for an entire region, which is why it has shifted to the pink color. Most of the areas in yellow have finished or are nearly finished placing the underground that was planned from the beginning. More underground cables are likely though, given the high pole make ready costs that impede the aerial construction.
The Loretto switch should be up and running in early 2025 (by late February). Progress is expected in the Dunnsville and Center Cross switches in early 2025 (March timeframe). Note: the switch being active is a necessary step to providing service to the area, but does not mean the area will turn green on the map. The cables will still need to be networked to homes.
Some houses are not in a project area, but also do not currently have service. We are working on figuring out how many houses do not have service and are also not scheduled to get service from this VATI 2023 project to determine the scale of the problem, and thus what sort of solutions are feasible.
Broadband Project Update 1/30/2025
There is exciting news this month! GER04 has all but a few poles approved, so is projected to activate by the end of April 2025! Breezeline is targeting 1,303 houses brought online by the end of August 2025, consisting of GER01, GER04, GER05, GER06, GEV11, GEV12, GEV13, GEV20, and GEV21.While the pole make-ready process remains slow, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative is getting 3rd party contractors to help them more rapidly move through the pole permitting process, which should hopefully speed up that process.The alternative to attaching to electric poles is to lay the cables underground. If the cost of providing service to a stretch of houses is cheaper by going underground than by replacing power poles and attaching to them, then underground is the approach to use. Breezeline has to wait for the cost estimates of making the poles ready for attachment before they can make that determination.One other potential source of delay is when the poles go across farm fields. Once planting season begins, no work can be done on those poles until after the harvest so construction vehicles do not drive across planted crops.Another project risk is the possibility of abrupt cessation of federal grant funding, although there have not been any specific indications that broadband expansion is a current target.The Loretto switch should be up and running in early 2025. Progress is expected in the Dunnsville and Center Cross switches in early 2025 (March timeframe). Note: the switch being active is a necessary step to providing service to the area, but does not mean the area will turn green on the map. The cables will still need to be networked to homes.Some houses are not in a project area, but also do not currently have service. We are working on figuring out how many houses do not have service and are also not scheduled to get service from this VATI 2023 project to determine the scale of the problem, and thus what sort of solutions are feasible.
Link to previous broadband announcements:
https://www.essexva.gov/community/page/fiber-internet-coming-essex-updated-12192024