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Verizon Project Hitting Some Bumps

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-verizon0706.artjul06,0,5489047.story?coll=hc-headlines-business

Verizon Project Hitting Some Bumps

Upgrade Damaging Utility Pipes, Cables

BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON
Associated Press

July 6 2006

RICHMOND, Va. -- In Pat Wilcox's yard, Verizon workers laying the groundwork for a revolution in communications quickly turned their efforts to a more pressing project: putting out a fire they sparked by crossing two electric wires.

By the time firefighters arrived, the wind-whipped flames had engulfed overhead utility lines and melted a chain-link fence.

"There wasn't much anybody could do till the fire department got there," said Wilcox, whose son's canoe was ruined in the March blaze in suburban Richmond. "It was burning so hot."

The damage bills won't be the last paid by Verizon Communications Inc. as it continues with its largest-ever construction project, which involves replacing a copper-wire network with fiber-optic cables.

New York-based Verizon is spending billions on the upgrade so its network can deliver video on demand and hundreds of channels of high-definition television, as well as Internet connections hundreds of times faster than most broadband lines.

So far, the path to the future has been marked by more than a few ruptured utility pipes, split cables and dug-up driveways.

Verizon officials acknowledge start-up problems with their FiOS project, but they also say they have seen a dramatic decline in the number of damage incidents since it began in 2004.

"It was definitely growing pains for us," said Chris Creager, Verizon senior vice president for operations in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Some officials and utilities agree that Verizon's performance has improved, but they add that this often came after stern warnings, halted jobs and stiff penalties.

Others say complaints, even if fewer in number, are to be expected wherever the project moves, and especially in communities with mostly underground pipes and cables.

"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 water line 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 $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.

At one point, Verizon was striking 10 or 11 lines per 10,000 feet - a common industry measure.

To slow the company down, the county twice reduced the number of permits issued to Verizon to dig along municipal rights of way. It also began holding monthly performance meetings.

Those steps have helped, and Verizon's strike rate has declined to about 2 per 10,000 feet.

"It's a huge burden," Baquie said. "In addition to my normal work, I've had to become a project manager for Verizon's fiber-optic expansion."

In Virginia, damage to underground lines has declined dramatically from a peak of 247 incidents last August to 86 in May, according to figures Verizon gave the state.

Regulators learned that some of Verizon's contractors had started digging even when other utilities had not yet marked the locations of their underground lines.

In Virginia Beach, a crew had been plucked from the street and provided little or no training. Their supervisor was found sleeping in a hotel room.

Massoud Tahamtani, director of the State Corporation Commission's utility safety division, said the agency charged as much as $2,500 per violation, although some fines were reduced after contractors agreed to train workers and use less intrusive excavation methods.

Not all of the damage can be blamed on Verizon - or its contractors. Forty percent of gas-line damage in Virginia, for example, was caused by the phone company's contractors, who do almost all of the underground work.

But about 28 percent resulted from failures by utilities to properly locate their own lines. In the remaining cases, no one was assessed blame.