CITY OF

PORTLAND, OREGON

  COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING

Nancy Jesuale, Director

7 January, 2003

To: Teresa Boyle, PDOT

From: Mark Ford, COMNET Operations Supervisor

Subject: Fire Cable

Teresa,

Paul Hill has put together a good synopsis of the events leading up to our situation, and a quote for the estimated costs. Because of the relocation at Lombard and Buffalo Streets that was not in the original quote it has jumped a bit, but here it is:

“In the beginning of the Tri-Met Interstate light rail project, I attended the preliminary utility coordination meetings. I informed my supervisor at the time (Bob Ochs) about the scope of the project. He decided to become personally involved and attended a meeting. At the meeting he ran across Rich Johnson of PDOT. Since PDOT would be doing extensive utility work, Rich agreed to handle the project in behalf of the Portland Fire Bureau.

At that time, a comprehensive communications project, the Interagency Regional Networking Enterprise, or IRNE, was in the planning. The fire department’s existing cable system is aging, and it was expected the IRNE system would be the solution for the future.

Due to many turns in the road, so to speak, the Fire Dept. decided to keep the existing system. The underground duct bank recently installed under Interstate Ave. was not designed for the needs of the current cable system. The financially expedient solution is to keep the existing aerial cable system in place and make the necessary physical changes.

The issue now is to make temporary work permanent, and make the physical changes necessary to accommodate the light rail project. Part of the light rail project involved relocating the utility pole line on Interstate Ave. to the East. Almost every pole that the Fire Bureau’s cable system was attached to has been changed out. Some of the attachments to the new poles are just fine, but much of the work was done with the expectation that it would be taken down right around now.

The cable system runs along the East Side of Interstate Ave. from Lombard St. to Going St.. The signal is fed from the East on Killingsworth St. approaching Interstate Ave. At Killingsworth St. and Interstate Ave., the signal splits to run North and South. To the South, at Going St. the system terminates at fire station 24. To the North, the system splits at Buffalo St. and runs one block to the East to feed fire station 8. At Lombard St. the system turns to run west, crossing the light rail system.

The scope of work involved here can be broken into four sub projects. They are as follows:

1. Lombard St. to Buffalo St. Relocation:

The existing cable crossing at Lombard St. needs to be relocated. Every other utility is moving away from this intersection, and two critical poles are being removed. The best solution is to relocate the crossing one block South to Buffalo St., and route the cable one block West to Greenwich Ave. AT&T Broadband has an aerial crossing at Buffalo St., so the path already exists.

2. Strand Replacement from Portland Blvd. to Going St:

The Fire Bureau’s coax cable is currently lashed to the PDOT traffic signal cable for aerial support. The two main reasons for replacement of the old PDOT cable with new strand are to bring the system up to National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) standards, and to reduce weight strain on the poles. As stated before, re-attachment to the new poles was intended to be temporary. Bringing this part of the system up to National Electrical Safety Code standards requires so much work, it is less expensive to put up a new support strand, re-lash the Fire Bureau’s cable to it, and take down the traffic signal cable. Also, pole owners are requiring utilities to wreck out any unused cables during times of significant work to reduce unnecessary weight and strain on the poles.

3. Killingsworth St. repairs

Traffic signal and utility pole relocations require adjustments to the cable path approaching the intersection.

4. Going St. repairs

Traffic signal and utility pole relocations require adjustments to the cable path at the intersection.

There is also some minor work to be done on Interstate Ave. between Buffalo St. and Portland Blvd. Most of this work involves bonding and grounding the strand and changing some hardware to meet NESC code standards.

The cost of these projects is as follows:

Lombard St. to Buffalo St. relocation:    $ 4900.00

Strand replacement:        $13,050.00

Killingsworth St. repairs:        $ 1500.00

Going St. repairs:          $ 907.50

Other minor work:          $ 1500.00

TOTAL            $21,857.50 “

Please review and contact me with any questions regarding this quote/project. We appreciate your assistance in this matter. I am sorry that I am a little late getting this to you. Paul got it to me on time and I kept getting sidetracked. Thanks.

Mark W. Ford

ComNet Technical Operations Supervisor

City of Portland

(503) 823-4391

mford@ci.portland.or.us