Underground Construction - June 2019 - 7

Chapin, S.C., Utility Department Wins
Dire States Grant
MTA Fiber Holdings
to Connect Alaska
with Contiguous U.S.
MTA Fiber Holdings LLC is building
AlCan ONE (Alaska Canada Overland
Network), a fiber network connecting Alaska to the contiguous United
States and beyond, with the goal of
completion by the middle of 2020.
This first and only all-terrestrial
network will initially have capacity of more than 100 terabits per
second, which can be expanded and
increased in the future as demand
grows. The network will establish a
secure and reliable fiber connection
to any point in the contiguous United States, providing MTA members,
as well as Alaska, with robust internet
transport for decades to come.
Currently, MTA pays significant
broadband transport fees to other
carriers to facilitate high-speed
access for its membership. The new
all-terrestrial line will lower these
expenses, provide a secure and reliable route and provide Alaska with a
stable internet transport connection.
Further, it's a long-term solution
that gives MTA and its members
access to internet capacity, along
with the option to reinvest funds in
other parts of the company, to better
improve technology access.
MTA Fiber Holdings has secured
partnerships with Canadian carriers
in order to extend MTA's existing
network from North Pole, Alaska,
through Canada and on to any major
hub in the United States. Only traffic
that both originates and terminates in
the United States will be carried over
MTA Fiber Holdings' all-fiber network.
"This will be a major win for the
people who live, play and work in
Alaska, supporting business, job
growth, and ultimately, the state's
economy," said Michael Burke,
CEO of MTA.

Vermeer Southeast
Celebrates Marietta
Grand Opening
Vermeer Southeast celebrated the
Grand Opening of its new Marietta,
Ga., parts, service and sales facility.
A crowd of more than 300 attended
the grand opening event on May
3, which featured facility tours,
equipment demos, vendor displays,
live music and barbeque.
Initially considering a move to
another location further outside of
metro Atlanta, company leadership
decided to remain on the current
site, based on customer feedback.
Creative site-planning enabled
expansion to accommodate future
growth, as well as substantially increase parking and equipment areas.
The original, 7,000-square-foot
facility, constructed in the early '70s,
now covers nearly 24,000 square
feet, with a 6,000-square-foot parts
showroom and an additional 7,000
square feet for parts storage, a
9,100-square-foot service area with
10 bays, and a 2,100-square-foot customer and employee training center.
Vermeer Southeast offers industrial equipment solutions through
11 locations covering Alabama,
Florida and Georgia.

ARA Forecasts
Continued,
Steady Growth
The new five-year forecast from the
American Rental Association (ARA)
calls for equipment and event rental
revenues in North America to surpass $61.3 billion in 2019, including
$55.8 billion in the United States
and $5.3 billion in Canada-up 5.0
percent compared to 2018.

CASE Construction Equipment awarded
the 2019 Dire States Equipment Grant to
Chapin, S.C. for its East Chapin Sewer Force
Main Project. As the winner, Chapin will
receive $25,000 in free equipment rental
for the project, through local CASE dealer
Hills Machinery.
The project will install a new, parallel
force main to relieve pressures in the service area on the existing sewer
force main and pump stations. An additional force main will provide
capacity to reroute sewer flow, significantly reducing the likelihood of
future overflows that may affect the drinking water of approximately
130,000 customers in area. The project will also mitigate other
stormwater and wastewater challenges for the municipality and create
more capacity for additional business development in the town.
A committee of CASE representatives chose the winner from
submissions by communities nationwide about using heavy equipment to
improve a critical piece of local infrastructure.
"A primary consideration in selecting a winner for the Dire States
Grant is the ability to build and positively affect numerous facets of a
community's infrastructure," said Michel Marchand, vice president-North
America, CASE Construction Equipment. "Chapin presented us with
an underground utility and services project that will relieve stresses on
current systems, protect water quality and public health in the region,
and expand the capacities available to both residential and commercial
interests for future growth."
Bidding on the project will take place in the next few months, with
work expected to begin later in 2019.
"The town of Chapin utility department is relatively small and will
greatly benefit from the assistance provided by CASE in helping offset
some of the costs of this project," said Andy Metts, director. *
FOR MORE INFORMATION
CASE Construction Equipment, (262) 636-6011, casece.com;
direstates.com

Similar steady growth is expected
in each of the successive years of
the forecast, to reach $69.8 billion
in revenue by 2022.
"The equipment and event rental
industry is growing and continues
to expand faster than the overall
economy. The outlook continues to
be positive," said John McClelland,
Ph.D., ARA vice president for government affairs and chief economist.
In the U.S., equipment and event
rental revenue is expected to

grow another 4.2 percent in 2020,
4.3 percent in 2021 and 4.7 percent
in 2022, reaching $63.5 billion.
"There also is potential upside
from an infrastructure bill," said
Scott Hazelton, managing director,
IHS Markit, the forecasting firm that
compiles data and analysis for the
ARA Rentalytics subscription service.
"The exact gain to rental would
depend upon the size, time span
and composition ... of the bill, but
something on the scale proposed
UConOnline.com | JUNE 2019

7
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Underground Construction - June 2019

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