Fledging efforts to build a fiber network in Fort Bragg, California have seen some headwinds in the wake of the project’s original build partner being dismissed. The need to find a new vendor to help the city toward its goal has resulted in significantly higher costs and some notable delays, though city leaders say they’re still dedicated to guiding the project to completion.
The original plan to deploy affordable fiber broadband to the city of 7,000 was slated to cost somewhere around $14.7 million. When the city announced its plan to begin construction last year, that number jumped to $17.3 million. Recently issues have now increased the planned total cost for the project to $18.9 million.
Construction began last Spring, but it didn’t take long for the city to realize that the fiber deployment was going to exceed the city’s original projections.
“In July or June, it became obvious that the level of restoration in the streets was going to far exceed what we could afford,” City Economic Development Manager Sarah McCormick told the Fort Bragg City Council at a meeting back in January.
At the same time, the city's original build partner, construction management firm GHD, was dismissed by the city after it could not originally account for being over budget due to boring costs. GHD had been awarded a $1.4 million contract to oversee the project.
“We quickly terminated that part of the contract because that was his job — to track the project,” McCormick said.
Analysis later found that the higher costs were due to the late addition of telecom fiber flower pots – enclosures allowing for the core fiber trunk to be split off to serve individual locations and residences – something inexplicably omitted from the original design.
“When they made that change, they didn’t change the bill of materials for boring,” McCormick said. “That would have been like a real no-brainer thing to see if you were the construction manager and tracking the project.”
Navigating a New Path
City officials say they’ve since taken a more direct oversight role of deployment operations, which is estimated to save the city around $40,000 a month. Officials also say they’ve decreased the original scope of the project by nearly $700,000, including $490,750 in ADA curb ramp improvements leaders say now won’t be needed.
Still, the city’s original projected estimate of a June 2026 is unlikely, though the city has yet to offer a more concrete new timeframe for completion.
Formal pricing has yet to be announced, but the city says it’s aiming to offer symmetrical 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) fiber access for as little as $50 a month.
Like so many U.S. markets, Fort Bragg has historically suffered from a lack of competition among regional telecom giants AT&T and Comcast, resulting in spotty access, high prices, slow speeds, and substandard customer service.
$10 million of the project comes from a Last Mile Federal Funding Account (FFA) grant from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), awarded in February to help fund the construction of a Middle Mile Broadband Network (MMBN) that will run directly through the heart of Ft. Bragg. The remaining project costs will be paid for by a $7 million, 20-year loan at 4.85 percent from EverBank, approved last year by the Fort Bragg city council.
While the city acknowledges the cost overruns have been frustrating, local leaders continue to express full support for the project and promise locals the improvements will be worth the disruption.
“While the construction impacts are real, we believe the long-term payoff will be worth it,” City Manager Isaac Whippey said at an end of the year update. “A locally owned broadband utility—built for Fort Bragg, operated here, and designed to deliver reliable, more affordable internet for residents and businesses, along with new economic development opportunities for our community.”
