The pilot for the city's broadband project will encompass an area from Tower Avenue to the University of Wisconsin-Superior, from Belknap Street to North 21st Street.
ConnectSuperior, a community-owned fiber-optic infrastructure project, was developed to provide high-speed broadband access to every home and business in Superior. Upload and download speeds of 1,000 megabits per second will be available across the network. This first phase of construction will allow 821 homes to be connected.
The work Thursday involved heavy equipment — horizontal directional drills and mini excavators — as well as compactors known as "jumping jacks" to tamp clay back down around the sites when they were finished.
The crew members are laying an underground grid of conduit to run fiber-optic lines through and connecting them at handhole boxes — vaults that allow access from above ground.
About a dozen crew members from Hanco were in the neighborhood Thursday. They said they'll be working in the area for a couple months to lay 9 miles of conduit. It comes in 1-inch and 2-inch diameters, depending on what is needed for each section.
Karleen Johnson, a Hanco laborer with Union Local 563, wore her mud boots in case of rain. She jumped into a hole along North 16th Street to connect the bright orange conduit. Operator Zach Hipsher then used the excavator to fill the space with clay and tamped it down with the jumping jack before the handhole box was installed over it.
A block away, laborer Tory Brady and operator Garret Knutson unspooled 60 feet of conduit to run under North 16th Street to connect the two blocks.
This is Johnson's third season with Hanco, and she said they're taught to stay alert and "keep their head on a swivel" while working. She encouraged drivers to slow down and watch for workers in the area.
© 2024 the Superior Telegram (Superior, Wis.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
