Date: Fri 21-May-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Conservation-fiber-optic

Full Text:

Commission Reviews Fiber Optic Cable Plan

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Conservation Commission members are reviewing a proposal from a communications

firm to install underground fiber optic cable through the western section of

town as part of a new nationwide communications network optimized for Internet

technology.

Level 3 Communications, LLC, presented its plans for the project to

Conservation Commission members at a May 12 session.

The firm wants to install five miles of fiber optic cable along a course which

will pass through the buffer zones of 18 wetland areas along Route 25, Route

6, Route 302, and Taunton Hill Road. Installation would be done in the roads'

rights-of-way, generally beneath road pavement. Two sections of the project

would be installed beneath road shoulders.

Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver said he will tour the cable route with

Conservation Commission member Edwin Dudeck. Mr Driver said he will review

Level 3's erosion and sedimentation control plan in the coming days.

The run of cable to be installed in Newtown is part of a cable section to be

installed between Stamford and Hartford.

The cable would enter Newtown from Brookfield on Hawleyville Road, follow Mt

Pleasant Road to Taunton Lane, follow Taunton Lane to Taunton Hill Road,

follow Taunton Hill Road to Route 302, and then follow Route 302 to Bethel.

Along its route in Newtown, the cable would pass through areas protected under

the provisions of the town's wetlands regulations.

In a letter to Mr Driver, Kristen Bishop, an environmental planner for Earth

Tech, a firm which represents Level 3 Communications, said the cable's route

is designed to avoid entering wetland areas as much as possible. Soil

scientists for the company have delineated the route with that consideration

in mind.

Although some of the proposed cable installation would occur in wetland buffer

zones, none of the proposed work would have significant adverse effects on

wetlands, according to Ms Bishop.

All cable installation work would be done either beneath the pavement of state

and local roads or alongside the roads within those roads' rights-of-way. Such

a cable placement prevents the need to obtain private easements for cable

installation and maintenance. The cable is ×ths of an inch thick. It is

enclosed in a 1¬ inch diameter plastic conduit. Spare conduits would be

installed for possible future cabling. Fiber optic cables transmit large

volumes of information with rapid pulses of light.

Subsurface cable access chambers would be installed along the cable's route

for maintenance work. Work crews would restore the land disturbed for cable

installation.

Conservation Commission action on the application is expected at an upcoming

meeting.