Have you checked available rights of way lately? They haven't changed much for quite a while. Telecom has not really any ability to build dedicated bridges for telcom fibre. It uses existing facilities wherever possible. Following the paths of least cost/resistance, this pretty much determines that rivers and bridges become choke-points. The only real alternatives are microwave towers (a cost/benefit argument I won't touch, even with your ten-foot pole). WRT the other comment about that MCI conduit on the tunnel wall, I have reports that temperatures are exceeding 1000F, near the fire. I submit that no amount of armor-clading is going to shield that cable, from those temps. The only cable that might survive is whatever may be buried under the road-bed.
-----Original Message----- From: Brian Wallingford [mailto:brian@meganet.net] Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2001 1:28 AM To: Sean Donelan Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: Update: CSX train derailment
"Rivers and bridges"?
Either Frank is sensationalizing his comments for the benefit of the press, or he's been asleep since '93.
Seems to me the so-called "choke-points" now are more social and fiscal than physical - I doubt rivers and bridges are much of an issue.
:According to the Baltimore Sun, companies have laid 30,000 feet of :emergency fiber to patch around the damage in the Howard Tunnel. : : "There was a ripple effect around the country with corporate networks : due to this Baltimore disaster," said Frank Stanton, an executive with : Lexent Inc., a New York-based company that repaired fiber-optic cable : after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. "Everybody thinks they : have redundancy, but these type incidents show people there are huge : issues. When you cross rivers and bridges, these choke points are the : Achilles' heel." : :On the Washington DC to New York City fiber route, there seems to be :at least one train derailment leading to significant network traffic :re-routes every year.