21 Jul
2001
21 Jul
'01
6:19 p.m.
One of the things that may change over time is that some of the new drilling technologies being used in oil drilling, drilling with turns, angles, and horizontal drilling, may become viable for many telecom conduit builds. You can do about 5 horizontal miles today, and that would get you around or under nearly all obstacles such as rivers, and would in fact be enough to run deep *under* metro centers when you're trying to go through rather than into the builtup area. Those are more expensive to do than traditional trenching or hanging in existing rail tunnels or off bridges though, so it may not be cost effective except in limited areas. -george william herbert gherbert@retro.com