Franklin County broadband officials report majority of VADI build complete; authority approves request to seek DHCD extension

Franklin County officials on Tuesday said the broadband buildout funded under the county's VADI grants has reached most households and that the county will seek an extension from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to finish construction and close out the project.

Brian, a project representative for the VADI contract, told the Franklin County Broadband Authority that the contract aims to make service available to 3,508 previously unserved county addresses. "Goal of where we're trying to get is 3,508 unserved county residents," Brian said. He reported 2,413 locations currently have service available — about 69% of the total contractual commitment — and said more than $34.3 million had been expended through August.

Why it matters: Authority members were told much of the remaining work requires high-effort actions (make-ready operations, easement resolution and a difficult parkway crossing) and administrative closeout. Those items, officials said, will require more time than the contract's current October deadline allows, prompting the board to authorize staff this month to request an extension from DHCD through the end of the year, in consultation with the state agency.

Progress, remaining work and risks

Brian and authority staff provided a line-by-line progress report on both the FY-21 and FY-22 VADI projects. Key details they gave to the authority include: - Contract goal: 3,508 VADI locations (project commitment). - In service: 2,413 locations (reported by Brian; described in the meeting as "69%" of the contractual commitment). - Under construction: 1,060 additional locations in active construction (reported as part of a larger production program); the representatives said those 1,060 locations represent about 234 miles of the larger 520-mile network estimate. - Short-term targets: staff said roughly 600 of the locations under construction "we expect to be in service by the end of this month," and they set targets of 3,013 locations (about 86% complete) by September and about 3,363 locations (roughly 96%) by October. - Money spent to date (through August): $34,300,000 (reported by Brian).

Officials cautioned that the percentages reported refer to household availability, not the full scope of engineering and closeout tasks. "If a home has fiber running past it, but it hasn't been lit yet, that's not counted in that 69%," Brian said, describing the difference between availability and fully completed service activation.

Make-ready, AEP coordination and site-specific issues

Authority staff and partners said American Electric Power (AEP) has placed large resources on make-ready work and that the pace of make-ready has improved in the last three months because of closer coordination. "For AEP's part, there's really nothing that we're waiting on from them in phase 1," Brian said.

AEP's Rob Mann, who appeared in person, said crews and contractors have accelerated work and that August had been particularly productive. "August was a fantastic month as far as weather. A lot of things got done," Mann told the authority.

Officials flagged two site-specific risks. Boones Mill (a small project area called "DSA 5") has required a lengthy permit for a parkway crossing; the contractor has proposed an underground bore as a workaround but warned that failure of that bore would force another, longer permit process and additional AEP make-ready. The authority said it has paused make-ready at that location while the bore workaround is attempted. Easement negotiations in another project area (DSA 20) were also described as still in process.

River Street / AEP regional utility-leverage project

Authority staff also presented a summary of a related regional project where AEP installed "middle-mile" fiber and River Street will provide last-mile distribution. Mike Armbrister of West Piedmont Planning District Commission, and Rob Mann of AEP, told the authority that Franklin County construction has progressed well compared with neighboring counties.

Rob Mann said the AEP build for Dickinson, Sago, Endicott and Ingramville routes is largely complete in Franklin County, with splicing and distribution work still pending on some routes. He said the combined AEP transport engineering accounts for roughly 102.7 miles for the county portion and that about 98.5 miles had been installed.

Board action: extension request authorized

After discussion of the remaining construction and closeout tasks, the authority voted to authorize staff to pursue a contract extension with DHCD and "to request an extension through the end of the year in consultation with DHCD," in order to complete final construction, documentation and closeout. The motion, made by Mister Tatum and seconded by Mister Mitchell, passed on a voice vote: the board recorded all present as voting "aye."

What remains next

Staff said the extension request will be finalized after further conversations with DHCD to determine how much post-contract cleanup the state will allow and whether a short extension (into January) may be required. Officials also said the longer contract period would give residents more time to sign up for subsidized service under the VADI window, especially for scenarios that require long driveway extensions or additional on-premises wiring.

Quotes from participants

"We have 10 60 additional locations that are under construction today. That is 2 34 miles of the 5 20 that we referenced at the beginning," Brian said, describing the scale of work in production.

"AEP has really put a lot of focus on getting this done and managing their contractors and keeping them present," Brian added, thanking the utility for its field work.

"August was a fantastic month as far as weather. A lot of things got done," Rob Mann said, summing up recent installation progress.

Ending

County officials said they will file a formal extension request with DHCD after confirming the state's posture on post-contract closeout work. In the coming weeks staff will also continue engineering, make-ready and splicing work in the remaining production areas and advise residents with long driveways or special wiring needs about the subsidy window while the contract remains open.