Gilbert Civic Center Street Fiber Network

Challenge: The Town of Gilbert, Arizona, needed to expand its ITS network and planned to implement over 34 miles of backbone fiber along the Town arterials. The uniqueness of the project is that, upon completion, it will connect all the public works facilities by utilizing this newly built town-owned fiber optic network.

Solution: The former YSMA team prepared an award-winning Fiber Optic Implementation Plan for the Town of Gilbert which set the framework for installing fiber optic infrastructure over a 10-year horizon period. The plan incorporated the communication needs of water, wastewater, parks, library, public safety, and transportation departments. Overall, 128 facilities and 65 traffic signals were planned for getting connected to the Town owned fiber network.

The plan also identified the corridor priorities and the construction cost. The overall cost to implement the projects identified in the plan is $34 million which has been funded through the $500 Million infrastructure improvement bond passed by the citizens in 2022. Completed in 2021, the Fiber Optic Implementation Plan received the best ITS Arizona Project Award in 2021.

Subsequently, the HR Green team was awarded the design phase of the project in December 2022. The project was segmented into three separate corridor packages to be constructed from 2024 to 2026. The design team has delivered the design plans, specifications, and estimates for the 2024 and 2025 corridors, and we are ahead of schedule to deliver the 2026 corridor design packages.

In addition to designing the town-owned fiber infrastructure, HR Green is also designing the infrastructure for prospective telecom providers to lease facilities from the Town to expedite the deployment of the high-speed broadband network.

Benefit: The project will significantly improve the operational efficiency of the Town’s communication network. It will create an opportunity for a public-private partnership between the Town of Gilbert and third-party telecom service providers. It will help deploy the broadband network more quickly and provide more choices of broadband service providers, ultimately reducing broadband pricing for the residents.