Brooks – After years of discussions and planning, construction on the City of Brooks’ broadband network, BrooksNET, will officially begin on Wednesday April 27th. This state-of-the-art fibre-optic network will be co-owned by the City of Brooks and Community Network Partners and will be accessible to every property in Brooks.

During construction, residents will notice the following:

• Existing utilities being located and marked with coloured flags or paint in order to prevent damage.
• Large construction signs at neighbourhood entrances and smaller signs near mailboxes.
• Construction equipment, such as hydrovac trucks, backhoes, and direction drills used to expose existing utilities and install the fibre-optic cables.

The majority of construction will occur in back alleys and utility right-of-ways, but there are some instances when the drilling will be done along the street. When construction is on the street, there may be some impact to traffic and parking, but detouring and signage will be in place. Drivers are encouraged to watch for signage and obey all traffic detours and laws, particularly in construction zones when workers are present.

The City of Brooks has been broken up into seven service zones and construction will occur one zone at a time, starting with Zone D. The process for construction will be to identify existing utilities, expose those utility lines, install fibre-optic cables using directional drills, and then crews will follow along afterwards, filling holes and remediating properties. Crews will be able to install up to 600 metres of cable per day, and will be moving along through neighbourhoods quite quickly; they may only be in an area for one day before moving to the next location. 

“We’re thrilled to be moving forward with this project which will bring new opportunities for economic development to our community,” says John Petrie, Mayor of the City of Brooks. “BrooksNET will future-proof our community and set us apart as a destination for businesses and residents.” 

The official groundbreaking ceremony for BrooksNET will take place on Monday, May 2nd at 3:30pm in Evergreen Park. For more information about BrooksNET, visit www.brooksnet.ca or contact:

Lisa Tiffin
Manager, Community Development
ltiffin@brooks.ca
403-362-3333