Construction of Centennial’s Fiber Backbone Complete

The City of Centennial’s vision to provide dark fiber with simple terms of access and usage has come to fruition. Centennial has completed the construction of a 432 fiber strand backbone, FiberWorks, connecting key City sites and community anchor institutions. The completion of more than 50 miles of fiber backbone also enables existing and new broadband providers to tie into the new infrastructure with the goal of providing better and more competitive choices and services for the City’s residents and businesses. This new fiber backbone is considered key City infrastructure, connecting City sites, and will become an integral part in the role out the City’s new Intelligent Traffic Signaling system.  The project was completed on schedule and within the budget of $5.7 million.
 
Since construction started in late 2016, the City has executed four lease agreements. This year, the City entered into a 20-year lease and O&M agreement with Ting Fiber and have provisioned a buffer tube of fiber for Ting’s use in the Central Fiber Ring. Avata Networks leased one pair of fibers along more than 12,000 feet of City-owned fiber to provide broadband services to businesses and residents and SEAKR Engineering executed a lease as well to provide connectivity to two facilities and provide disaster recovery and back-up services.  The City also executed an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Cherry Creek School District to connect fiber to two facilities.
 
“It seems like it was just yesterday that ballot question 2G passed. Here we are five years later with a built-out fiber backbone completed on schedule and within budget. This is an exciting time for Centennial, as we now have the opportunity to connect our traffic monitoring equipment allowing the City to investigate innovative solutions to traffic congestion,” says Mayor Stephanie Piko. “The completion of the backbone allows the City and Council to look ahead and consider new smart city applications and services, IoT, big data and other new market use cases.”
 
“Council’s goal with the Fiber Master Plan was to provide an opportunity to increase competition by completing a fiber backbone that could deliver superior and competitive choices and services for consumers. Businesses consider access to telecommunication services and speed a priority when deciding where to locate their facilities. Through partnerships with the private sector, our residents and existing and future businesses could enjoy faster internet services and possibly lower prices,” says Member Ken Lucas, Mayor Pro Tem and Fiber Commission Chair.  “I have appreciated being involved with this project since the vote in 2013 and am proud of our City for being innovative and forward thinking. We will continue to be future ready.”
 
For additional information about Centennial’s FiberWorks program visit centennialco.gov/fiber.