Along the rugged coast of southern Oregon, one can travel three hours in three directions and not find a town of 20,000 residents. Even so, people live remotely throughout the region and have desperately needed broadband service for years.

The situation became even more apparent in 2021, when wildfires laid bare the fact that Coos Curry Electric Cooperative, a member-owned electric utility based in Port Orford, Ore., was unable to quickly notify 20% of its customers of emergency power outages.

The utility’s subsidiary, Beacon Broadband, had used a contractor to begin bringing fiber optic cable to the region, but that contractor was not able to meet the utility’s standards.

“There were key issues with quality and manpower,” said Brian Simms, director of telecom construction for Key Line Construction Inc., Myrtle Point, Ore. “They were not locally based, not familiar with the region, and just grabbing subs here and there. They had trouble staffing up.”

Key Line’s goal is to bring 1,500 miles of fiber optic cable to an area 100 miles wide at its widest point and 150 miles long in a two-phase effort that entails connecting 20,000 addresses by 2027.

About 80% of the work entails lashing fiber optic cable to transmission poles. The remainder involves burying cable.

“The other contractor was finishing 1–3 miles per week, and it just wasn’t consistent,” Simms said. “Now we’re doing more like 5–6 miles per week, and the work is of a much better quality, up to standard.”

For several years, Coos Curry Electric had relied on Key Line Construction for completion of transmission work, said Simms, a former employee of Beacon Broadband later hired on by Key Line. The project involved Key Line as well as IBEW-trained apprentices and journeymen from Local 659 and other neighboring locals.

“We started slow, with just a couple of crews completing just a half-mile, then brought on more people and went to 1, 3, then 5 miles per week,” Simms said. “We wanted to make sure everyone was trained to do the work safely, that the job was being done right. The sense of teamwork was apparent right away. We accomplished so much more, and the momentum grew.”

Line crews now work in five groups of four, with solitary splicers strategically placed at locations nearby. Depending on the weather, the splicers work in vans or tents, or outside on card tables, thanks to fusion machines that eliminate the need for tight environmental controls. Underground directional boring crews work in groups of five, and number around 30. In all, around 60 apprentices and journeymen are employed on any given day.

Early in the project, shotguns were used to shoot lines across ravines and rivers, but drone technology is used more often now, Simms said.

Tree trimming accounts for a huge portion of the preliminary work, as does hand-lugging heavy equipment up steep inclines where transmission lines part ways with the roads.

So far, about 40% of the first phase has been completed, Simms said. Work on the second phase will begin mid-2024.

To view a video showcasing Key Line’s efforts, visit https://youtu.be/cnpAV8iCBYk.