Crisis in the Canyon – Project THOR team proud to Provide Public Safety fix in a pinch
We may need to get used to re-routing our trips that involve the canyon because with burn scars and rainfall, we cannot rely on a single route through the mountains. The same is true of broadband. A story by Kelli Duncan in the Vail Daily, Project THOR a hidden hero in reopening Glenwood Canyon, highlighted that the project is doing what it was designed precisely what it was designed to do. Provide resiliency.
When a series of mudslides finally closed Glenwood Canyon this August for a few weeks, turns out CDOT fiber which is used to operate variable message boards and cameras was washed out also. Project THOR also utilizes that CDOT fiber to connect Glenwood to the Internet in Denver. Because the network is designed as a loop, when this fiber was cut by the mudslide debris flow, the connected communities were not impacted. As CDOT crews worked to clear the highway of hundreds of tons of debris after the highway was closed to vehicular traffic on August 1st, another slide occurred that once again severing the fiber connection. It soon became clear that the damage to the fiber in Glenwood Canyon was going to be for an extended period. At that point, NWCCOG’s Regional Broadband Director, Nate Walowitz was contacted by CDOT personnel requesting that the Project THOR team provide a backup connection that could be used to restore some level of resilience for CDOT information infrastructure north and west of Glenwood Canyon.
How did Walowitz and Milo and Bob Fifer at CDOT know each other? They have been working closely for the past two years as Project THOR was established on CDOT fiber, making splices to connect two locations in Clear Creek County, two in Summit as well as to Vail, Eagle and Glenwood Springs before the network took off on fiber leased from other carriers on the northern loop through Meeker, Craig, Steamboat and Grand County before connecting back to Denver.
NWCCOG would like to thank it’s partners, the City or Glenwood Springs for providing a fiber connection from the CDOT yard to town hall including ports to connect to THOR, and to the Town of Eagle for allowing CDOT to access two of their 43 yet-to-be utilized ports. Just like motorists, we are working with CDOT to understand when they estimate their fiber will be restored and develop more alternate routes to ensure that Project THOR accomplishes its mission, delivering affordable, accessible, RELIABLE broadband to our communities.
The network also provides vital public safety infrastructure, not only supporting CDOT now, but also the 911 Call Center operated by the Town of Vail. As a side note, helping CDOT brought some history of the NWCCOG broadband program full circle. In the early 2010s CDOT was going to stop their fiber run at the top of Vail Pass. In order to provide public Wi-Fi for large public events, and innovative new public safety infrastructure for the 2013 Alpine World Championships, Vail sought a funding partnership with Eagle County to bring that fiber from the top of Vail Pass to town. It wasn’t too long before CDOT funded fiber all the way to Glenwood (and now to Grand Junction) on which NWCCOG and Region 10 support very large regional public middle-mile networks. For that network to return the favor is a testament to the importance of this public investment, and in enduring partnerships among agencies.
NWCCOG supports CDOT returning to investing in broadband along other state highways such as Highway 9, 40 and 24 in the future to allow further resilient connections to be made, strengthening all our connections and public safety across the state. While NWCCOG is proud to own and host Project THOR, this kind of middle-mile infrastructure should be coordinated at a state level. It is too important to ignore that fact these days.
