In what seems to me to be a first for downtown Hudson, an internet provider will be tearing up a long portion of city roadway to bury their lines -- specifically, and at least for now, along the south side of the first two blocks of Cherry Alley, including 1st street between the alleys. As far as I can tell, the fresh spray paint in the alley and on 1st Street indicates that the latest internet provider to come to town, Archtop Fiber, has decided to bury at least some of its lines rather than hang them from National Grid's utility poles. (The worker in the picture confirmed to me that "someone" was going to be digging up the two blocks of the south side of the alley. He and two others working for a utility contractor hired by National Grid were marking the asphalt to show where Grid's gas lines below the asphalt are located and to be avoided.)
It is as clear as the freshly painted letters and arrows on the asphalt: a company by the name of AMW Utility, the contractor that has been hanging Archtop Fiber's fiber optic lines all over town for the past year or so, will be doing the line-burying work in Cherry Alley. (Archtop is on a blitz, and they seem to have forced at least one longtime, local internet provider, Mid-Hudson Cable -- now Mid-Hudson Fiber! -- to lower their sign-up and service fees. How many mailers have you received this year from Archtop?)
The upcoming excavation of Cherry Alley is surprising, perhaps unprecedented, and certainly concerning. Is this really what we want and need? Is this the future for all of our alleys and streets?
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| The buried lines coming to lower Cherry Alley may have something to do with the county's office building under renovation at 11 Warren. |
Is Archtop's ultimate goal to bury all of their lines all over town, or just some of them, ripping up our streets and alleys wherever they feel the need to? Why are they burying lines under Cherry Alley if they've been hanging lines elsewhere for months? Did Archtop get permission from the city to allow their contractor to tear into roadway pavement and then replace it? Has Archtop provided the city with insurance should something go wrong while digging up the alley and street? What paving/excavation company will be doing the excavation (as far as I can tell, AMW is not in the digging business)? Does Rob Perry care who replaces the pavement to make the alley decent enough to drive, ride and walk on again? Does the city get any money from utilities that decide they need to bury their lines under our streets and alleys rather than hang them above between poles not owned by the city? If the new pavement in Cherry Alley that replaces the current pavement fails, will DPW be responsible for fixing it? Does our DPW keep track of all the pavement that utilities are removing and replacing, as well as making sure the work is done right? If, in a few months, Verizon or Mid-Hudson Fiber (or both) decide that they also want to bury their lines under Cherry Alley (and possibly elsewhere), will Hudson City Hall care what they do and where they do it? What if another internet provider comes along and decides they want to bury every inch of their lines under Hudson? Can the city tell them, "No, you cannot! Leave our roadways alone -- we paid a lot of money to install them, and we want them to last!"? When does this madness end?
All utilities would prefer their lines to be buried, out of sight and out of the elements, but as you can imagine, it's really expensive to do so. But the issue of expense does not seem to be a concern for Archtop (though it certainly is for Mid-Hudson Fiber and Verizon). Archtop isn't so much a utility company as it is part of a money-making investment venture formed in 2015. Here is what can be commonly found online describing Archtop, which is based in Kingston, NY: Archtop Fiber is a portfolio company of Post Road Group, an alternative asset manager, which supplies significant growth capital to the company to expand its fiber network.
The Post Road Group's website describes their business with these words: An alternative investment advisory firm based in Stamford, Connecticut.
Post Road Group/Archtop Fiber (they are essentially inseparable) probably wants nothing more than to put Mid-Hudson Fiber and Verizon (and anyone else hanging internet lines around the Hudson Valley) out of business. And they probably have the funds to do it. Here's something else I found online: This digital infrastructure and real estate investment platform is a primary investor, providing substantial capital for Archtop Fiber's expansion projects, including up to $350 million initially and additional rounds of funding.
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| The beginning of Cherry Alley, at Front. Expect lots of work soon, with noise, diesel exhaust, blocked alleys and streets and all the other wonderful effects of progress and having the most awesome internet ever. |
Do not sign up with Archtop Fiber! You will only be supporting the worst that this country's global financial capitalist system has to offer. Do you think for one second that the millionaire billionaires behind the Post Road Group care one bit about Hudson, anyone living here, or even the condition of our streets and alleys? No one from the Post Road Group/Archtop is here to make life better for the people of Hudson. They just want our money, and that's it. Archtop needs to bury their lines under our streets and alleys, and hang them between poles, so that their billionaire supporters from Stamford can recoup the millions or billions they've invested in their "portfolio company." You dig?
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| "OUR NEIGHBOR"?????? |
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| A Verizon worker hovering over an open hole on 4th Street, with manhole cover nearby. I have no idea what they have been doing there for at least the past three days. |
While preparing this article, I came across a tangentially related article on the great news site from across the river, Porcupine Soup, titled Riley Seeks To Ban Foreign Corporations From Owning Utilities Like Central Hudson. It's all part of a rapidly increasing trend: monied interests from far away trying to take a piece of the utility pie, often at the expense of local residents and local businesses. Maybe the global economy makes all of this inevitable, but, boy, it sure is concerning.
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