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Chantel project: construction underway, budget pressures and two remaining rail crossings
Summary
Chantel representatives told the Broadband Authority their 2022 grant project has reached about three‑quarters completion, with contract extension to September 2025, substantial construction underway, higher make‑ready costs and two remaining Norfolk Southern railroad crossings affecting a small number of homes.
Chantel (regional project partner) told the Broadband Authority that its 2022 grant build in Campbell County is in active construction, with most design and permitting substantially complete, but the project is over budget and two Norfolk Southern railroad crossings remain unresolved.
Jessica, speaking for Chantel, said the project targets 3,509 previously unserved locations and roughly 320 miles of new plant. She reported a contract extension to September 2025 and said most design and permitting work is complete. “All of our design and permitting is substantially complete,” Jessica said, and the project team is “full on construction mode.”
Status and numbers: Jessica said Chantel has put a large share of the project into service and that roughly 61% of the project is complete (presentation slide), with about 1,242 locations currently in construction. She reported approximately $21,000,000 spent to date and said the project is “over budget” because the team pivoted some routes from aerial to buried and incurred higher than expected make‑ready costs from power utilities.
Railroads and property access: Chantel has reduced its railroad crossings from 12 to two; those two remaining crossings affect fewer than 10 homes, Jessica said. She also described unresolved property‑access and easement issues affecting a handful of homes in gated or private communities—specifically citing difficulty getting Liberty University to grant public‑utility access for a small cluster of addresses on gated roads.
Mitigation and next steps: Chantel said it applied for reimbursement through the state make‑ready funding the county received and that the county also received a $1.5 million supplemental allocation from the state for high make‑ready or buried pivots (presentation described a supplemental grant). Jessica said the team is “doing a lot of scrubbing work” on address data to finish the remaining problem locations and expects to have the majority of locations serviceable by June 2025 and to seek a formal extension to complete remaining work into 2026 if needed.
Public outreach: Chantel reported a roughly 25% take rate among recently placed locations (varies by cohort) and said marketing and town halls will begin in service areas as they become ready.
Audience note: Chantel asked the authority to expect paperwork requesting a state extension for the grant timeline and to coordinate where county staff can help with property‑access issues.
(Where transcript language was unclear, the article uses only amounts and counts the presenter stated on the record; ambiguous transcribed phrases were omitted.)
