Longboat lands contractor for underground utilities project

Dropped cell phone calls in Longboat Key may soon join eight-track tapes and rotary telephones as relics of the past.

Longboat Key officials have tapped Danella Utility Construction Inc. as its preferred contractor for its $48 million neighborhood project to bury the Key’s utilities and improve its notoriously bad cell phone service.

“Cell phone service is better on the south end of the island because we have taller buildings to place antennas on,” said Commissioner Randy Clair. “There are very few buildings on the northern end that are two to three stories high.”

The next step in the process is to negotiate a contract with Danella. Those talks are underway.

Town Manager Tom Harmer said talks are being fast tracked so work on the project ­­-- which would eventually place all of Longboat’s utilities underground - could start by the end of the year.

Also included in the town’s request for proposals, albeit a separate project, are street lights with smart technology, which could be used to support cell phone service. There are two conventional  cell towers that service Longboat Key: one on City Island near Mote Marine Laboratory and another in West Bradenton on Cortez Road. Companies that have responded to the street light contract include AT&T Business, Knight Sky, SmartTecPort and Waterleaf International.

“Once we successfully negotiate a contract, the contractor will be obtaining a construction staging and storage area for materials management and then ultimately will mobilize to begin underground construction of electrical and other facilities,” Public Works Director Isaac Brownman said in an email. “At this time, the plan is to start at the south end of Longboat Key. A Notice-to-Proceed date will be established once a contractor is on board.”

The genesis of Longboat’s undergrounding project goes back to 2015 when voters approved a plan by the town to borrow up to $25.2 million to bury utilities, such as electric, telephone, and fiber optic lines throughout the island. Assessments to property owners will cover the remainder of the cost.

A circuit court judge approved the town's financing plan in March. 

Plans call for Longboat to own both the fiber and infrastructure, which will reduce the cost of high-speed Internet for residents.

Phase one of the construction will be in the Country Club Shores in the south end, while the second phase of the five-phase project is from the Zota Beach Resort to Buttonwood Cove in the northern section of the island. The third phase will be Buttonwood Cove South to Country Club Shores, followed by Dream Island Road south to the Zota, and the final phase, Zota south to Buttonwood Cove.

“Our intent is to meet in the middle,” Harmer said.

The town is also reviewing proposals from four different companies -- American Dark Fiber, Foresite Group/Avata Networks; Pinpoint Holdings Inc./Waterleaf International LLC and Ting Fiber Optic Inc. - install the fiber-optic backbone.

A contractor for that portion of the project is expected to be picked later this month.

And if everything goes as planned, the project should be finished within three years of the first shovel digging into the ground. Town officials are hoping that putting all the town’s overhead utilities underground will increase power reliability, hurricane safety and island aesthetics.