A crew of subcontractors working with AEG installs fiber conduit in front of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hoosier Fiber Networks says AEG currently has three contracting companies operating around Bloomington.
(Lucinda Larnach / WFIU-WTIU)
This story has been updated.
Hoosier Fiber Networks connected the home of Mike Sauer and his wife Vania Castro to citywide broadband last January. Sauer said it only took a few weeks before the trouble started.
“We started having some problems in our bathrooms, a lot of gurgling going on in the toilets when you flush them,” he said.
Sauer suspected the issue was related to the recent fiber installation. When city utilities came out to investigate, they discovered contractors had drilled through his sewer line.
The contractor responsible, Vertical Underground LLC, sent out a crew to repair the damage. Sauer said that fixed things. But several months later, the problems resurfaced.
“We had to call the plumbing people back and clear out our lines the week before Thanksgiving when we were having guests come in from out of town,” Sauer said. “Our entire family was coming here, and the toilets are all backing up.”
Mike Sauer indicates the light-colored concrete patch on his driveway where contractors made repairs. Fiber installers fixed the damage they made to his plumbing in January, but he said water problems have started again. (Lucinda Larnach, WFIU/WTIU)
Now Sauer is at a loss. He worries that if contractors won’t cover repairs, he could get stuck footing the $12,000 bill. He felt frustrated by the city’s response.
“You talk to them, and you feel like what's happened is their fault,” he said. “And yet they seem to have no interest in trying to help remedy the situation.”
Bloomington’s ambitious fiber optic plan will bring rapid download speeds to thousands of homes. But homeowners affected by damage during installation can find themselves bogged down for months.
Fiber installation is the largest underground infrastructure project in Bloomington since cable television. Dave Brodin, CEO of Hoosier Fiber Networks, said Bloomington can be a challenging place for a project of this size.
“An urban environment like Bloomington is very dense with underground infrastructure, and some of that infrastructure, including parts of the utilities, dog fences and irrigation systems are frequently unmarked,” he said.
Drilling underground is like operating in the dark. Bloomington Utilities will send cameras into mains to estimate their depth, but accuracy decreases the deeper they go. (Lucinda Larnach, WFIU/WTIU)
The City of Bloomington maintains over 420 miles of water main pipe, not including the service lines that lead into buildings. The oldest of these sewers were constructed more than 120 years ago.
While the city’s plumbing maps are mostly accurate, they can only account for two dimensions. As Vic Kelson, director of City of Bloomington Utilities, told the common council earlier this month, breaks are usually caused when contractors misestimate the depth of pipes, which can change over time.
“They know if I'm standing on top of it or not, but they can't be quite sure how deep it is because the land surface elevation does change,” he told the council, responding to a question from councilmember Dave Rollo about a recent sewer force main break.
According to James Hall, assistant director of transmission and distribution for the City of Bloomington Utilities, because soil composition is inconsistent, an inexperienced or unaware contractor could also end up drilling further underground than they realize. Hall said that was the case for the sewer force main contractors struck near Gentry Estates last month, causing waste to leak into a retention pond.
Pipes like these are used for sewer mains. Depending how deep a main is underground, it can take months for its contents to leak to the surface. Damage isn't always immediately noticeable. (Ethan Sandweiss, WFIU/WTIU)
“That sewer force main was between four or five feet somewhere,” he said. “Well, they thought they were only going to be at two feet.”
Brodin said Hoosier Fiber Networks tries to cut back on this by getting rid of unreliable contractors.
“Any subcontractor has multiple instances is typically removed from the project and replaced with a new one,” he said.
Dealing with pipe breaks can be frustrating for residents because it’s not always clear who to contact. The City of Bloomington doesn’t contract or pay the companies installing fiber, so it’s not liable accidents. Rather, it granted the French infrastructure company Meridiamright of way to develop.
(Courtesy of GigabitNow)
Meridiam’s local subsidiary, Hoosier Fiber Networks, oversees the entire project, but the actual installation is handled by a general contractor, AEG. AEG, in turn, works with subcontractors that dig, bore and lay cable. For homes connected to fiber, Seattle-based GigabitNow will be the exclusive service provider for the first five years.
In the words of city IT director Rick Dietz, going to the city as a middleman is not usually the best route.
“If you do notice there's an issue, talk to the contractors in your neighborhood immediately because they will often address the problem,” he said.
Bloomington Utilities uses this truck outfited with a remote-controlled camera to survey pipes for damage and obstructions. Contractors will call the department for "locates" to avoid hitting infrastructure. (Ethan Sandweiss, WFIU/WTIU)
Hall said breaks can take weeks, months or even years to become noticeable. The longer a resident waits to investigate drainage problems, the more difficult it can be to prove a contractor is responsible.
“I think it's better for them to be more proactive than trying to be reactive maybe 18 months after when you're gonna have trouble convincing someone that they did this 18 months ago,” Hall said.
Both the city and Hoosier Fiber Networks said it should never land on the consumer to pay for those mistakes.
“Anytime Hoosier Fiber Networks is at fault for any damage, it's totally the financial responsibility of ourselves,” Brodin said. “It's not on the homeowner, the homeowner is not gonna have to pay for anything.”
Still, the path forward isn’t clear to Sauer. Hoosier Fiber Networks said the contractor responsible for the break under his driveway has been moved to a project in Columbus Ind., and Sauer is unsure whether he can prove that his continuing problems are connected to the initial break.
Since the damage is underneath his property and not on the public sewer main, the city said they can’t inspect his sewer with an underground camera to diagnose the problem.
“Just having to deal with the situation for this long has been frustrating,” Sauer said.
Residents affected by construction should contact Hoosier Fiber Networks at support@gigabitnow.com or 1-800-315-3509.
Update: Since the publication of this story, Hoosier Fiber Networks has said they hadn't heard from Sauer since the initial break a year ago. A worker from the company visited his property again last Friday to inspect his pipes.
