Connexin’s FTTP Broadband Poles Rollout in Beverly Causes Gas Leak

Broadband ISP Connexin has said they’re investigating after their UK engineers, who were deploying poles to carry a new 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network in the East Yorkshire (England) town of Beverley, accidentally damaged a gas pipe in the Beverley Parklands area on 11th March.

The network operator began their £3m roll-out in the town at the end of last year (here), which is being supported by network integrator firm STL and aims to cover 22,000 local premises. The deployment forms part of their wider ambition to cover 500,000 premises with their new fibre broadband infrastructure (no timescale has been given for when this will be achieved), much of which will be built using poles.

According to a report on the BBC News, locals began smelling gas during Connexin’s works in the area, and it wasn’t long before engineers from Northern Gas Networks arrived on the scene to investigate. Fibre engineers usually do a pretty good job of avoiding strikes on the gas mains because it’s not only very dangerous for them, but it’s also highly disruptive, although such incidents do still occur (they’re usually quite rare).

A spokesperson for Connexin confirmed that “repairs have been carried out to ensure that the area is safe and any disruption to supply is kept to a minimum“, although they were unable to say more while the cause remains “under investigation“.

­Scott Kitchingman, Business Operations Manager at Northern Gas Networks, said:

“Northern Gas Networks (NGN) attended an incident in Beverley Parklands, Beverley yesterday afternoon (Monday 11 March), where a third party had accidently damaged a gas pipe in the area, causing a gas escape.

Engineers made the situation safe and are working hard to repair the pipe as quickly as possible.

Our team has been speaking to householders in the area to keep them informed about the work and are on hand to answer any questions while it progresses.

There is no impact on gas supplies to homes and businesses in the area.”

The incident will no doubt add some fuel to the fire of those who, in recent months, have been very vocal in their opposition to network operators using poles as part of their strategy for deploying full fibre broadband networks. But it’s worth considering that poles are, so far as we can tell, only very rarely the cause of damage to the gas mains, and we’ve seen many more incidents that involved traditional underground works.

On the other hand, there’s currently a distinct lack of up-to-date and publicly available information with respect to the reporting of such incidents, which makes it difficult to get a full picture. Greater public transparency over this area might help to encourage network operators and their contractors to ensure a higher standard of street works and safety.