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INDOT Permits for Broadband

Good Afternoon Members,

I had a few issues brought to my attention by INDOT. You can see their concerns below and the possible thoughts they may have on future changes. The one issue on Safety was concerning to me. The issue has to do with work being done in the ROW without the proper safety requirements being completed. I believe this could be a contractor or sub-contractor issue as well. 

The not filing permits for routine maintenance was another issue. I would like to know more about how it is handled by our companies and if our contractors are asked to use the same safety guidelines when they provide work for our companies.

The emergency work that is needed to be completed by our companies can be permitted after the fact. I believe we have five days.

The last two items have to do with INDOT knowing where our assets are located in their ROW’s. They have stated they have run into a number of situations where they have found network items in the ROW and they do not know who it belongs to. My ask of you:

1) Ideas on how to work with INDOT on the location of assets in the INDOT ROW.
2) Ideas on how INDOT can better communicate with our members and their contractors who are in the ROW.

INDOT Issues:

  • Providers not filing for a permit for routine maintenance activities where equipment or workers will be in the rights of way.
    • During one of the initial Lt. Gov calls with providers I outlined for the many providers the need for these permits to be requested; with the main overarching reason to ensure the safety of the traveling public and workers.
    • I also outlined the steps, contact information etc for ANY work that a provider deems as emergency work.  
  • Permits that have been submitted by a sub-contractor and no documentation of the provider is listed.  
    • We have had some situations where a project has a permit for new construction of fiber facilities however the permit is listed under a sub or sub of a sub and challenging to get to the person or people to make some decisions.
    • If we don’t have a provider name and only a sub-contractor and an issue occurs during an accident etc, we don’t have any way of alerting the correct people/person or company.  This is especially challenging with micro-cell locations.
    • More than likely a change in required fields within the permitting system to capture this info will be in added in the relatively near future and I suspect may create some concerns.  


I would like to set up a call with our membership to talk about this situation . I would like to have it early next week, so if anyone has any conflicts that would keep a large number of people from attending please let me know. I will send another email this week with call day/time and numbers.


Thanks,
Neil Krevda
President, IBTA

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