Reconnect First in Nation

By: Shannon Hyslip

Posted on: July 23, 2020

With construction commencing on June 2nd in rural Grafton, our project with Polar Communications became the first Reconnect project in the nation to be under construction. To understand the scope of the program, this project was the first out of:

“We are extremely excited about this project,” said Karl Blake, CEO of Polar Communications. “We are filling the connectivity void in Walsh and Grand Forks counties.”

Considering this project consists of 550 miles of construction serving 789 potential subscribers, this was no small feat. The staff of both Polar and CNE were extremely dedicated to make this happen. First notification of award occurred in early November of 2019 with project work starting in December. Between then and the project bid date of February 26th, all of the following items needed to be completed:

Environmental Clearances from DC
Final Project Drive and Design
Staking
Mapping
Plans & Specs approval from DC
Pre-Bid Conference

Congratulations to the staff of Polar and CNE on achieving this monumental feat!