GettingConnected
Infrastructure UpdatesFacilitate CommunitySuccess
By Peter Fretty
In the increasingly competitive global marketplace,businesses continue to relocate atalarming rates. Progressive and proactivecommunities are consistently searching for recognizablecost advantages. In most instances,this is not only necessary to actively attractnew businesses that will bolster the region’seconomic stability, but it is also crucial to retainenterprises that have served the area for years.
Cognizant of this escalating trend, the outlying suburbs of the Minneapolis metropolitan area, including St. Louis Park, Farmington, and Minnetonka, are working diligently to upgrade and expand their technology infrastructures to stay current with the latest developments.
According to Clint Pires, St. Louis Park Technology Director, making St. Louis Park more competitive in attracting and retaining residents and businesses means the speed and cost savings of fiber communications are first and foremost.
“Public safety and public service workers are now able to effectively use large files such as photos and maps to serve the public,” he says. “In addition, the city constructed this network as part of a larger metropolitan-area network in conjunction with LOGIS, a consortium of cities that share the costs, risks, and information of technology. The LOGIS network will also provide network redundancy. All of this makes St. Louis Park more competitive as a forward-looking city, one that employs technology wisely and is therefore able to respond to the needs of its 2,000 businesses more quickly and intelligently. We want to retain and attract people to live, learn, work, play, and set up businesses in St. Louis Park.”
The scope of this work, performed by Parsons Technologies, entails both single-mode and multimode fiber optic cable installation, termination, testing, and certification. In the end, these cities will have fiber connections between all their public service facilities, such as the city hall, police and fire stations, libraries, schools, and water towers. When complete, these connections will enable the cities to improve services as well as lower costs.
John Wondra is the Consulting Designer for Golden Valley, Minnesota-based Local Government Information Systems (LOGIS). He explains that identifying member agencies that are candidates for fiber connection in the short, medium, and long term has remained a key focus. Spending the group’s finite collective resources as effectively as possible to get the best results for the most member agencies is also important.
“Dealing with many projects at the same time, most of which have some level of interdependency on one another, is challenging,” says Wondra. “These projects involve multiple agencies, multiple vendors, and, therefore, multiple challenges.”
Meeting the Goal
The goal of providing high-speed, metropolitan- area connectivity at rates of 100 Mbps or greater to as many of LOGIS’s member agencies as possible, while exploring any and all cost-effective scenarios for doing so, is no light task, explains Wondra. “Solid planning and effective communication are invaluable,” he says. “But dealing with last-minute changes and making decisions based on moving targets is just as important.”
According to Charlie Shaffer, Project Manager at Parsons Technologies, some form of contingency planning or thought process is desirable when working on a project of this scale. “You need to give your client the most realistic expectations that you can and come up with ideas to reduce risk,” he says. “Then you must work to outperform expectations.”
Recognizing the Challenges
Making the vision of optimum connectivity a reality requires a high level of coordination to support so many different entities geographically, explains Shaffer. “The separate users within each entity have their own logistical concerns,” he says. Most notable, he explains, is the challenge of cutting over existing live network circuits for the school district onto new cabling while minimizing unavoidable network downtime.
“Our ultimate goal is connectivity,” says Shaffer. “As a cabling contractor, our service is to provide a physical network suitable to present needs as well as in anticipation of future needs. In this case, that means providing highcount, single-mode fiber optic cable that is tested, labeled, and ready to go.”
As the contractor of record to provide cabling infrastructure for voice and data transfer and building systems, Parsons Technologies has also undergone construction amidst seasonal winter weather conditions, which do not have near the impact on normal premise cabling jobs.
“Our technicians will always remember performing fiber optic fusion splicing out of a van parked on the street during some subzero temperatures,” Shaffer says. “Underground construction is a messy business. We found that private homeowners and residents are surprisingly resilient and accepting of torn-up yards, sidewalks, and street-front walkways when they receive a notice and explanation along with an opportunity to voice their concerns.”
According to Shaffer, only a handful of residents had concerns. “Most of those were people who inquired about the availability of fiber optic network access,” he says.
According to Pires, by building the fiber optic network in conjunction with St. Louis Park Schools and LOGIS instead of the city, schools, and LOGIS each building individual networks, the entities planned a joint network in the mid- 1990s. “The schools built its portion in 1997, and the city completed its portion in 2005,” he says. “LOGIS is in the midst of a multiyear, multicity fiber project. These entities share and maintain the same conduit and fiber. They also share the costs and can now provide hot site services.”
Overcoming the Obstacles
Parsons Technologies’ experience with Underground Piercing, Inc., (UGPI) as a subcontractor has been outstanding and mutually rewarding thus far, explains Shaffer. “As a team, we have received a great deal of recognition,” he says. “Without their duct and pathway, which includes obtaining permits, handling inner- and intercity processes, and leading permit meetings, our challenges would remain obstacles. Fortunately, it has been a learning and rewarding process for everyone.”
Wondra adds that in overcoming all the obstacles the group has faced, it was important to prioritize projects based on the timelines involved. “In addition, it is also crucial to communicate as candidly as possible with all parties, be flexible when need be, and keep focused on our shared goal of making this all work,” he says.
Pires adds that the key to ensuring success each step of the way is to maintain a very focused scope. “You need to do your best to complete a due diligence process around fiber — listen to all interests, collect facts, and provide both hard and soft costs and benefits when showing the return-on-investment analysis,” he says. “Primarily, though, try to find other entities with whom you can partner. In public service, there is no excuse for redundant costs and every reason to share costs paid for by the same customers.”
Working as a Team
For Parsons Technologies, LOGIS, the various individual municipalities, and the subcontractors, getting the job done right means working together as a team — something that is often difficult when everyone has individual wants and needs.
“We are most successful when we take on our challenges as a team and emphasize collaboration and open communication,” says Shaffer. “It’s about creating a learning atmosphere of accepting mistakes and holding ourselves responsible. Only then can we ensure we do not repeat those same steps toward failure.”
It is really the professional players in the field who win the game, explains Shaffer. “We have to thank our lead technicians for our ongoing success on this series of related projects,” he says. “We were fortunate in discovering and nurturing a positive team. Parsons Technologies is very pleased and proud of our team’s continuing accomplishments.”
