Jensen Precast wins broadband project contract

Jensen Precast of Sparks won a contract to provide 417 concrete vaults for the D395 project by the California Broadband Cooperative, which seeks to construct a 583-mile fiber-optic cable line from Barstow, Calif., to Carson City to provide high-speed Internet access to communities along the eastern Sierra Nevada.

Jensen Precast General Manager Anthony Bosco says the first shipment of 100 vaults, which measure 48 inches in diameter by 48 inches tall, are slated to go out this month for delivery to Gardnerville and Big Pine, Calif. The D395 project will start in northern Nevada and head south, Bosco says.

The vaults have tops similar to a sewer manhole and allow workers to inspect the underground fiber-optic line after it's installed, he says. They also will house extra cable to reach future customers, the CBC says. Jensen Precast will make additional vaults as the job progresses through California.

"(This job) came at a great time as we are slowing down," Bosco says. "It saved a few jobs, definitely."

The $101.4 million Digital 395 project is expected to serve 36 communities, six Indian reservations and two military bases and should be completed by the end of July of 2013. Praxis Associates of Vallejo, Calif., is constructing the cable line on behalf of the CBC. The project, which follows U.S. 395, is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.