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Team Fishel Awarded California Segment Of The Asia-America Gateway
The Asia-America Gateway is a
$550-million project placing 20,000
kilometers or 12,500-miles of
submarine fiber optic cable along
the Pacific Ocean floor. Once
completed, this network will provide
connectivity to the Philippines,
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam, Hong Kong, Hawaii and
the US west coast. This particular
route was chosen to reduce risk of
damage due to natural disasters
such as earthquakes, tsunamis
and/or volcanic eruptions.
According to Doug Mauk, Chandler
Project Manager, the California
segment involved four major areas.
The first was the construction of the
EMT pathways at the AT&T
Underground facility. Second was
the outside plant removal and
placement of approximately 10 ½
miles of fiber optic and power
cables. The third segment was the
construction of an ocean ground
bed, which included 227-feet of
boring and placing four anodes. The
final segment was the restoration of
the Montana de Oro State Park Rim
Trail. The initial value of the contract was $265,000
but due to additional work grew to $310,000 for this
new customer.
"From the beginning, we were in a race to beat the
ship to the beach landing point," says Mauk. "It was
coming from Hawaii installing the submarine cable
while we were completing the ten-plus mile terrestrial
portion."
Mauk and Juan Ochoa, Supervisor from Irvine, jointly
managed the project. A total of five crews were
assigned to the project working from the central
California coastline at Los Osos to San Luis Obispo.
Due to the rough, hilly terrain, the crews rented fourwheel
drive pickups which could haul the Arnco
pulling machines, mini-excavators and loaders to the
remote manhole locations. At times, weather
conditions such as rain, fog and wind, hampered
productivity and more than a few Teammates had a
run in with poison oak!
Due to the nature of the work, inspectors from
Alcatel-Lucent, (the general contractor) inspectors
from BHC Rhodes (the engineering company),
archeologists, landowners, coastal commissioners
and environmental monitors were on-site throughout
the project. Teammates received special
environmental training before the project kicked-off
due to this area being the habitat of the Morro
Shoulderband Snail, an endangered species.
Environmental inspectors preceded the crews on the
Rim Trail to ensure that no fish, frogs, snails or other
protected species were harmed by our caravan of
four-wheel-drive vehicles. The
crews followed the
environmental impact study
requirements and if any
violations had occurred, the
environmental inspectors had
the authority to halt the work.
"This was a great team effort by
everyone involved," says Mauk.
The project was successfully
completed in April.
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