National Grid finished their make ready work in May 2020, two months ahead of schedule. They replaced 108 poles and moved wires on all the poles in town.
Verizon has finished their make ready work of moving wires on all utility poles as of October 21, 2020.
Axia/KCST and their subcontractor Phoenix have completed all of their make ready work to move middle mile lines for MBI along portions of Route 9 as of November 5, 2020.
Project engineer inspection ride outs by Westfield Gas & Electric, as well as both National Grid & Verizon began in tandem on November 16, 2020 and were completed on December 2, 2020. This work is to verify that all the work done by National Grid, Verizon and MBI was done to regulatory and project engineering specifications. Deficiencies that are found are documented and then have to be corrected by the utility companies. Inspections indicate that there are 107 mostly minor items to be remediated by National Grid. National Grid began their remediation work on December 8, 2020 and they completed their remediation work on December 21, 2020. Verizon began their remediation work on January 8, 2021 and they completed their remediation work on February 25, 2021. MBI middle mile remediation been completed, as of March 18, 2021.
Fiber distribution network construction has began in parallel with the remainder of the remediation work which has now been completed.
Enrollment periods and policies for fiber to the home service, and the process to follow, as well as costs, subsidies, and policies will be communicated soon.
Further updates to this post will be made as new developments occur.
For a complete list of current (late 2020 & beyond) project updates click on High Speed Internet postings in Town News & Announcements.
Additionally you can go to the High Speed Internet project page.