High-speed internet to expand near Moses Lake, Ephrata, Quincy, Electric City

EPHRATA — Fiber-optic lines will be coming to areas around Moses Lake, Ephrata, Quincy and Electric City in 2020. The tentative schedule for Grant PUD’s 2020 fiber buildout has been posted on the Grant County PUD website.

Fiber-optic cable is used for high-speed internet, which is important to businesses that need connectivity and Grant County residents who want to connect to the internet, including from remote locations.

Some of Grant PUD’s fiber-optic projects that were started in 2019 are scheduled for completion in 2020. The Ancient Lake-White Trail Road area near Quincy should be completed next week. The area along McConihe, Neppel and Stonecrest roads north of Moses Lake should be done by mid-January. The buildout along Kittleson Road, Road N Industrial and Wheeler Road is scheduled for completion in mid-February. In each case, construction was delayed because materials were delayed.

Two separate projects, one around Coulee City, the other in the Blue Lake-Alkali Lake area, were scheduled for construction in 2019, but they were delayed due to the need for additional permits. No completion date has been announced for either project.

The first project scheduled for 2020 is southeast from the Ephrata city limits, toward Rocky Ford, and southwest toward the Naylor townsite. The second project is south of Electric City along state Route 155 from Steamboat Rock to Osborn Bay on Banks Lake.

Next in priority is the area from Cave B winery, southwest of Quincy, to Beverly Burke Road, then along Road 2 Northwest/Southwest. The fourth project is south of Ephrata in the area of the South Ephrata substation.

Two additional projects are scheduled for completion in 2020, including the area between SR-283 and Road 9 Northwest near Quincy, and the area around the Gloyd townsite on Stratford Road north of Moses Lake. Construction is scheduled to begin in the Perch Point-McDonald area south of Moses Lake to Interstate 90, although that project might not be completed in 2020.

The fiber buildout began in about 2001, and about 75 percent of the county’s residents currently have access to the PUD’s fiber network. Providing fiber to the remaining 25 percent has been a subject of discussion among PUD commissioners and administrators for years.

Fiber-optic lines allow schools to access a wide variety of educational resources without leaving school. Utility district commissioners made it a priority early in the project to provide fiber to all public schools to ensure Grant County schools would remain competitive in the global economy.

Utility district commissioners decided in November 2018 to add more money to the fiber project with the goal of finishing it in five years. That timetable may be subject to some changes, depending on the availability of materials and the speed with which crews can do the work. Commissioners voted to allocate an estimated $12.5 million for the project each year between 2020 and 2023.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].