I promised to get out an update that the City Council received from the various UTOPIA representatives from last week.  We had various individuals from Tetra-Tech construction, Packet8, Mid-States Consulting, etc, provide a status report and update as to where the project stands in regards to our community here in Perry.

 Currently the construction crews are working along the north east side of town.  There are about 5 crews on the job with another 8 crews coming online this week.  With that many crews, almost the entire east side of Highway 89 will be in the construction phase for getting the conduit and necessary ground work done for UTOPIA.  The lines will be put in using a variety of methods, over the air - from pole to pole or underground.  Most of the city will be connected via underground cabling.  The underground cabling will be installed in 1 of 3 methods:  underground bore, an air hammer guided missile or open trench.  Most of the underground installations will be using the bore and guided air “missile” that has minimal impact to the surrounding areas and reduces the amount of ground that gets disturbed. 

So far in the UTOPIA project city-wide - there has been 6,000 feet laid of the 133,000 feet of duct anticipated for the entire city.  That’s close to 25 miles of cabling!  All of this cabling will go into the easements on the city streets and park strip areas.  Ron Sikes, one of the TetraTech Vice Presidents, reported that Perry City is a part of Phase 2 of the UTOPIA project that encompasses over 7 million feet of cabling.  Phase 2 is twice as large as phase 1 and when done will be enough cabling to put an entire fiber ring around the state of Utah!

The construction is being monitored and audited by Mid-States consulting.  Patrick Warner is the consultant that is present in Perry watching over how the construction is going and is also handling all complaints and questions regarding the construction.  He was kind enough to offer his cell phone should anyone in Perry need to contact him directly with any issues having to do with the construction near or around their homes or businesses.  His cell is: 435-660-1909.

In some fashion or other, all of these various agencies are keeping the City involved as they meet weekly with Paul Nelson and Lorin Gardner, the representative from our City Engineering firm.  This is really an exciting time for Perry City residents as we are seeing fruits of several years of planning and involvement now coming to a realization.  The construction will continue through the winter with services most likely available for homes and businesses to sign up for starting the first part of May of 2008.

For more information, please visit [1] http://www.utopianet.org/.