News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Twin Lakes General Manager and CEO Jonathan West said the company is ready to start work on a some 30-month project to expand internet access to underserved and unserved Putnam County homes.
The state awarded Putnam County over $10 million to install fiber internet to some 2,400 addresses. West said Twin Lakes just needs the contract of work from the state which is expected to arrive in the coming weeks.
“We placed some preliminary orders about a year ago for the necessities and big things that it takes to get this done,” West said. “A lot of those are going to be coming in very soon, so we anticipate almost starting immediately.”
West said majority of the work would focus on Eastern Putnam County with some northern areas. West said the plan is to at least work at two different locations at a time through two primary contractors.
“We’ll set up five electronic hub sites throughout the county’s footprint.” West said. “We will be able to build up to five projects at a time. With all projects, you sometimes run into an issue. Maybe there is a road crossing or a permit or weather. There is all sorts of things that can go wrong, but we will have up to five projects going at once and at all times at least two.”
West said the some 200-mile project will be a mixture of buried and aerial fiber line. West said the rocky terrain of the eastern part of the county makes digging economically unfeasible. West said in areas that digging is possible, main lines will be at least two-feet underground.
“The state has stipulations that this has to be done within 36-months,” West said. “We would like to have it done in less time than that. Because of that, in some cases we are going to put some of this in the air due to the time and resources to carve through rock.”
West said the project would be transformative for some 1,700 homes that do not have access to high-speed internet. The Putnam County Commission approved $4.4 million of COVID money to match the grant, meaning it will be a $14.8 million project.
