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BARC ahead of schedule on Rockbridge broadband; Brightspeed work on track for 2027
Summary
County Administrator Spencer Suter told the EDA that BARC’s VATI and Community Connect work is ahead of schedule and expected to meet a Dec. 31, 2026 deadline, while Brightspeed’s 28 project areas are on track for May 2027; BEAD awards to several providers require an overbuild reconciliation before some construction can proceed.
At a June 15 meeting of the Rockbridge County Economic Development Authority, County Administrator Spencer Suter briefed the board on progress toward expanding broadband across the county.
Suter said BARC is "ahead of schedule to meet the deadline" for its VATI and Community Connect projects and walked members through maps of BARC and Brightspeed project areas. He said Brightspeed is on track to complete its work by its May 2027 deadline.
The briefing reviewed a multi-year grant history: BARC and Brightspeed were awarded VATI in 2024 and BARC later received a USDA Community Connect award for Collierstown. In August 2025 the state’s BEAD awards named four providers with preliminary grants in Rockbridge — Amazon, Comcast, SpaceX and ZiTel — producing overlaps with earlier VATI awards that must be reconciled at the federal level before some BEAD-funded construction can proceed.
Suter summarized the BARC VATI map status: Spring Valley and Buffalo Creek builds are complete; Conrock north near I‑81 has its bore complete and customer hook-ups underway; Conrock south bore is in progress with customer hook-ups to follow. He noted the VATI work has a required completion date of December 31, 2026 and that a DHCD site visit on June 12, 2026 went well.
The briefing also described Community Connect activity in Collierstown: BARC completed a Lake Robertson community access office over the winter, has completed much of the right-of-way work and is evaluating interim options (Starlink and on-site Wi‑Fi) to provide early access for residents while larger builds continue.
Suter said ZiTel remains committed to building in Rockbridge but cautioned that overbuild reconciliation — a federal process to sort overlapping awards — is not finished and will dictate final construction schedules for some providers.
The EDA did not take any formal votes related to broadband at the meeting; staff said they will continue monthly coordination meetings with DHCD, the CSPDC and providers and will report updates to the board as federal reconciliation and site-level permitting proceed.
Ending: The county will continue to track provider schedules and federal reconciliation; staff flagged ongoing monthly updates with DHCD and follow-up site work as next steps.
