The need to connect communities between the core and large, developed urban areas has never been more urgent. With the rise of remote work and demand for more connected education, middle mile communities are often left to choose a single major provider or simply no broadband service at all. For operators looking to both serve middle mile communities and create healthy competition, HDPE can make your deployment scalable, flexible, and future proof to meet rising demand with minimal impact.
Applications
State governments understand the urgency of middle-mile expansion, but they also know that repeated large scale construction projects create costly and inconvenient disruptions for their residents, and can negatively impact the environment. States across the country are encouraging and in some cases requiring the implementation of Dig Once principles. HDPE, especially MicroTechnology, is the ideal solution to the challenges of implementing Dig Once while preparing for future upgrades and expansions.
Middle Mile FuturePath in Action
The PA Turnpike Commission (PTC) wanted to upgrade their communications systems to a fully modernized integrated transportation system (ITS), and provide essential middle mile connectivity to Pennsylvania's underserved communities. Installing safely at night along 500 miles of busy roadside would be challenging, but MicroTrenching FuturePath 8-way provided the necessary flexibility, speed, and small footprint. Now, PTC retains 4 pathways for their own use with four spare pathways for leasing to commercial providers who will establish lateral connections to remote communities. See the video to learn more.
ADOT needed to overcome numerous challenges to meet their goal of delivering high-speed internet to Arizona's middle mile communities across 400 miles of conduit and fiber: rocky terrain, protected species and culturally sensitive grounds, rockfall areas, and rodent hazards -- all while minimizing disruption to road users. Watch the installation video to see how their unique design choices and use of FuturePath Armored 7-way helped them connect rural Arizonans in less time and with less impact.
Multiple pathways installed at once translate into rapid, scalable, and efficient deployments and flexibility for the long term
MicroTechnology is a natural fit for middle mile applications, as its multiple pathways can all be installed in a single pass, even in existing infrastructure, delivering dramatic increases in installation efficiency and supporting Dig Once aims. It’s also the ideal infrastructure for public-private partnerships which often bridge the funding gap in the middle mile, because each party can keep and use their own pathways as they see fit. And with innovative fiber placement methods like jetting, you can gain significant savings in installation time and labor costs as well as time spent on dangerous roadsides. MicroDucts and FuturePath allow for:
- Smaller crews to install several pathways at the same time
- Less traffic management, which means one-time lane closures and safer working conditions for your crews
- Trenchless technologies allow you to get more out of a small space
- Public-private partnerships enabled by FuturePath’s multiple pathways
