FOSA Files “Dig Once” Comments with the Federal Highway Administration – FOSA
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FOSA Files “Dig Once” Comments with the Federal Highway Administration

FOSA
FOSA
OSA Files “Dig Once” Comments with the Federal Highway Administration

WASHINGTON DC – September 14, 2020 – The Fiber Optic Sensing Association (FOSA), the nation’s premier trade association dedicated to fiber optic sensing, filed comments with the Federal Highway Administration on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding Broadband Infrastructure Deployment and Dig Once rules.

Commenting on the proposed rule, FOSA Executive Director Mark Uncapher wrote: “At the most basic level, Dig Once reduces the number and scale of excavations along highway rights-of-way when installing telecommunications infrastructure. In effect, it applies the admonishment familiar to builders and carpenters to ‘Measure Twice, Cut Once.’ In the context of infrastructure construction, this advice reminds us to double-check in advance to avoid unnecessary waste later.” FOSA’s comments are available here. Included in the filing are the FOSA DIG ONCE PRIMER, DIG ONCE POLICY: 16 STATE MODELS, and FOSA – DFOS Installation Considerations for Highways.

Beginning in 2009, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Ca) introduced the first of several Dig Once bills to expand the deployment of broadband internet service. As part of the “Mobile Now” provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration was directed to issue Dig Once rules for federal-aid highway projects.

 
ABOUT THE FIBER OPTIC SENSING ASSOCIATION
FOSA is a non-profit organization created in Washington DC in 2017 with the mission of educating industry, government and the public on the benefits of fiber optic sensing. Through webinars, videos, white papers, public presentations and public policy advocacy, the organization provides information on the use of fiber optic sensing to secure critical facilities, enhance public safety and protect the environment. FOSA Members include AP Sensing, Aselsan, Asymmetric Technologies, Corning, Ditch Witch, Dura-Line, Fotech Solutions, Graz University of Technology, Hifi Engineering, NBG Fiber Optic Corp., NEC, Network Integrity Systems, NKT Photonics, OFS, Omnisens, OptaSense, OZ Optics, Prysmian Group, Sensonic (Frauscher Sensonic), Smartpipe Technologies, The Weir-Jones Group and the University of California – Berkeley.
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