COLDBROOK, N.S. — A contract awarded by Kings County council will bring the municipality one step closer to connecting unserved or underserviced areas with the information superhighway.
At the November session, council awarded a contract for $364,671.37 plus HST and a $30,000 contingency to VistaCare Communications. The result of the work will be engineered designs to be used for construction tendering and permit applications to expand high speed internet access.
The project involves the installation of approximately 159 km of fibre optic cable as part of the Connecting Kings Connect to Innovate project. In most areas, the cable would be strung along existing poles. There would be up to 15 km of underground trenching required and other underground sections where there are existing conduits.
There are four routes involved, from the Valley Community Fibre Network (VCFN) backbone in Coldbrook to Baxters Harbour and Black Rock; from Berwick to East Dalhousie, from Grand Pre to North Grand Pre and an “overlash” package for the VCFN backbone from Windsor to Berwick along Highway 1.
The overlash would involve adding more fibre optic cable to the VCFN backbone in a congested area. County of Kings IT manager Chad West said this would help support the overall project.
A small portion of the line from Coldbrook to the North Mountain in the vicinity of Bligh Road would be installed underground.
“That is an area that will require some particular attention during the engineering phase,” West said.
There would be also be an underground section along the route to North Grand Pre, in the vicinity of the national historic site. On the route to East Dalhousie, there is a 10 to 12 km stretch without any existing pole infrastructure, so a different approach will have to be taken when engineering this section.
West said the industry standard for the network engineering portion of such a project is between $2 and $4 per metre. The price from VistaCare comes in at just over $2 per metre.
NEXT STEPS
West said the next steps after awarding the engineering contract would be collaborating on a final design. He said applications would be submitted in 20 km sections, in accordance with Nova Scotia Power Incorporated (NSPI) and Bell Aliant guidelines.
“This will also allow us to start construction sooner than if we needed to do them all in one application,” West said.
The construction contract would likely go to tender in December 2019 or January 2020. Construction could take place between February and December 2020, depending on timelines from NSPI and Bell Aliant. West pointed out that some sections “will be more difficult than others.”
Coun. Pauline Raven asked if there is a per-kilometre price comparison of trenching versus installing cable on poles.
West said direct trenching and burying would cost approximately $35,000 to $40,000 per km, compared to approximately $25,000 per km for installing cable on poles. He said conduit is the preferred method for burying cable, but this costs approximately $60,000 per km.
In May 2018, the federal government announced $5.6 million in project funding for Kings County under the Connect to Innovate program. The funding application was prepared by iValley on behalf of the municipality.
In September 2018, council authorized entering into contract negotiations with Cross Country TV Ltd. for the design, construction and operation of a last-mile open access broadband network.
