The new Nice/Middleton Bridge over the Potomac River connecting King George County and Maryland opened Wednesday, October 12, and brings 20,000 feet fiber along with it. Express-Tek’s Utility Construction department completed the relocation of fiber for Breezeline and Maryland Broadband from the old bridge to the new.
“We have been on this project since February 2021 putting the plans together in the early stages of the bridge construction,” Keith Ward, Director of OSP and Relocations at Express-Tek, said.
“Maryland Broadband and Atlantic Broadband [now Breezeline] contacted us for the design and construction consultation, and they liked what we could do for them, and we ended up with the fiber installation on the bridge.”
Originally, the fiber pull date was supposed to start in August of this year and was pushed back because the conduits were not completely installed across the bridge. Express-Tek had meetings weekly with the two broadband companies on their construction progress before getting the start date of Monday, October 3.
“Our contractors started that day and worked 12-14 hours every day including Saturday and Sunday to get this job completed,” Keith Ward said. “We finished pulling the fiber cables across the bridge October 11 at 3 PM.”
One of Express-Tek’s top engineers, Andrew Huffine, was a key part of coordinating with subcontractors to get this completed and off the bridge for the opening ceremonies. He had daily meetings for updates since getting the go ahead to let everyone know where we were at with the fiber pull.
For more on the Nice/Middleton Bridge, read the latest story on Fredericksburg Free Lance Star or watch the ribbon cutting ceremony here.
***Photo by Tristan Lorei, Fredericksburg Free Lance Star