PORT TOWNSEND — The next phase of Jefferson County PUD’s broadband build out will begin this month with contractors preparing to install 100 miles of fiber optic cable both above and below ground between Discovery Bay and Marrowstone Island and in rural areas outside of Port Townsend.
“It’s kind of a once-in-a-generation opportunity that this funding became available and Jefferson County PUD was one of the few PUDs in the state to take full advantage and get all of its rural customers covered,” said Will O’Donnell, the PUD’s broadband and communications director.
Construction plans for the project date back to 2021, O’Donnell said. The utility already has installed most of 200 miles between Quilcene and Gardiner, with 100 miles of above ground and 100 miles of below ground.
About 430 customers are already connected, O’Donnell said.
The nearly completed stretch will bring high-speed internet to 1,400 customers, and future access to another 600-plus possible customers.
The new runs of cable are part of the PUD’s $65 million multiyear project, wherein it is seeking to bring high-speed internet to underserved rural portions of the county.
PUD fiber included in October’s sub-project will pass more than 1,000 homes in designated areas on Marrowstone Island, along Anderson Lake Road, inside the Woodland Hills community east of Rhody Drive, and along much of the eastern shore of Discovery Bay before extending inland across Cape George over to Hastings Avenue, O’Donnell said.
The PUD has more than 5,000 customers signed up and waiting for service countywide, he added.
“Our biggest challenge is getting it to them,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve built over 200 miles of fiber to date. We have 400 more to go, through some rough country, with a lot of shoreline and a lot of trees, and homes spread far apart. But that’s where we live, and we’re excited to get our rural friends and neighbors connected.”
As a result of the phase beginning in October, 1,000 customers are expected to gain access to high-speed internet.
Along with laying conduit for fiber optic cable from Kilisut Harbor Bridge 4 miles north to Nolton Road, contractors will lay conduit for the future undergrounding of the above-ground powerlines along the route, part of a commissioner-approved four-year work plan, O’Donnell said.
“Putting the powerlines underground eliminates tree-related outages,” O’Donnell said. “Combining the work saves a lot of cost.”
Traffic will be affected during construction, with partial blockages and lane closures on Flagler Road.
Private drives and county roads will be temporarily closed during construction, which will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, from October to December.
“The PUD and its underground contractor, Mastec North America, will work with residents to reduce and restore any impacted areas,” O’Donnell said.
Though the construction is beginning this month, customers are unlikely to have internet before 2026, O’Donnell said.
“There are many steps that have to be completed before we can get customers connected to the internet inside their home,” he continued.
Late next summer, the PUD will be building from Chimacum to past Port Ludlow to Coyle, O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell added that the amazing thing about fiber optic cable’s bandwidth is that it’s practically unlimited, in the context of current and near future usage. The infrastructure being laid now will be able to handle growing needs into the distant future, he said.
The PUD’s internet will start at $65 a month for 150 Megabits per second upload and download speeds and includes a WiFi router.
A more affordable rate of $30 per month for the same service will be applied to customers enrolled in the PUD’s electric and water payment assistance program.
One gig or three Gigabits per second (Gbps) also is available for residential service. Business customers can access speeds up to 10 Gbps.
“My favorite thing to tell customers is that we are providing faster internet in Quilcene than most of Seattle,” O’Donnell said. “Every home that we build fiber to has the ability to get 10-gig service. Our basic service is 10 to 20 times faster than what rural customers can get today, at basically the same price.”
The projects on Marrowstone, at Discovery Bay and around Port Townsend are mostly grant-funded. With a projected total of $13 million, $11.5 million is coming from grants from the state Public Works Board and the state Broadband Office, $750,000 is coming from Jefferson County, and the remaining costs are coming from PUD grant matches.
“Because this project is majority grant-funded, most customers do not have to pay a fee to get the fiber inside their home or business,” O’Donnell said. “But our funding only covers the first 60 to 70 percent of residents to sign up in the project area.”
Remaining customers can sign up and are asked to pay a $750 construction fee to cover part of the cost of connection, or a $1,200 fee for businesses. The PUD will allow customers to pay the cost of the fee over 36 months as a part of their overall bill, O’Donnell wrote.
Generally, the construction from the main line to homes can cost the PUD between $500 and $10,000, O’Donnell said. In some cases, the utility has asked grant funders for more funding for expensive connections, or it has worked with customers to negotiate options, he added.
While the capital build out required grant dollars, the PUD expects ongoing maintenance to be self-sustained by internet fees, O’Donnell said.
Many homes in the area have been using DSL modems or satellite connections up until now, and the increased speed of the internet has the potential to drastically improve customers’ ability to engage in school work or remote work, O’Donnell said.
The PUD’s broadband webpage states that fiber optic can provide speeds up to 1,000 times those of DSL.
“I’m fielding so many requests from folks who don’t have the internet to do their job,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve got a doctor that lives down in Discovery Bay who needs to be able to send files back and forth. We’ve got all kinds of folks who moved here for the great quality of life, who have partly remote jobs, and they don’t have reliable connections.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
