CenturyLink, PRPA tussle over relocated fiber paths after 2013 fixes and 2024 fire leaves 9-1-1 diversity questions

CenturyLink and the Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) clashed at a hearings session over whether a 2023 maintenance move and subsequent field work during the July 2024 Alexander Mountain fire reduced the geographic diversity of 9‑1‑1 transport serving Estes Park.

The hearing record shows that on Feb. 27, 2023 PRPA requested a maintenance move that CenturyLink technicians executed in a Loveland/Estes Park central office jumper panel. CenturyLink witness Timothy Kunkleman, identified in the record as Regional Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy for Lumen Technologies (CenturyLink), testified that the company treated the original notification as a routine change-management maintenance ticket and that, in his view, the company “did not eliminate diversity.” Kunkleman also said the company’s lease with PRPA provided a long‑term path and that CenturyLink monitored circuits and alarming systems to detect failures.

But other witnesses told a different story. CenturyLink operations witness Christine Rangel, Manager, Region Operations, testified she received contemporaneous Teams messages and on‑site photographs indicating that some jumper work had moved traffic onto a PRPA route and that the internal “Word doc” inventory did not match field conditions. Rangel told hearing participants that at one point she “had forgotten we built another path,” and during the July 2024 fire she warned colleagues that she “can’t be sure 9‑1‑1 is diverse” until the network status was confirmed.

PRPA’s notice language, materials and internal terms also appear in the record. PRPA’s representative Jeff Grant told CenturyLink by e‑mail that the work was to “avoid a long term outage while WAPA rebuilds their transmission line.” Kunkleman and other CenturyLink witnesses testified that the PRPA lease remained in effect through 2024 while the parties renegotiated terms.

Key technical points in the record

- The two long‑haul routes at issue are referred to in the hearing record as the Highway 34 (sometimes called the “green” or 34/43 path) route and the Pole Hill (sometimes called the “purple”) route. Both routes include segments of leased PRPA fiber as well as CenturyLink‑owned…