Verizon has a lot of guts — the company keeps pumping billions into its next-generation fiber-to-the-premises project despite Wall Street’s ongoing skepticism about whether the initiative, called FiOS, will be profitable. And the massive construction effort, which has resulted in some major (and innumerable minor) mishaps, tests the hides of the company’s PR folks.
The latest: this AP story which starts out with a tale of Verizon starting a blaze in a suburban yard that engulfed utility lines, melted a chain link fence and destroyed a family’s canoe.
Aside from chewing up the time of state regulators, management of the construction is imposing extra costs on government offices charged with the task of making sure the telco isn’t causing severe problems.
“They want to do a lot of work quickly and that’s where the problems start,” said Thomas Rawls, a professional engineer in the public works department of Hillsborough County, Fla., which ordered Verizon to temporarily stop work after a series of waterline breaks in 2004.
Verizon’s project has forced communities to hire people to monitor work and to protect their facilities — such as electric, gas and water lines.
Rawls, for instance, hired 10 temporary inspectors for about $500,000 a year and a consulting firm for another $150,000. In Anne Arundel County, Md., where Verizon hit hundreds of underground lines in its first few months of construction last year, three additional inspectors were hired, said Alex Baquie, a local public works official.
But, some officials say that’s just the price that has to be paid for doing any major construction work in cities.
“On all major construction jobs like this, it’s unrealistic to think you’ll go through the project without damages,” said Doug Hilkey, traffic operations director for Fort Wayne, Ind., where the project has run relatively smoothly.
Cynthia Brumfield at 12:03 AM|Comments(0)
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