There are many different situations that can cause an ICN site to move. One common factor is the teamwork that goes into each project. These projects take time to plan, coordinate, and execute. We are proud of the employees, customers, and vendors involved that see these projects from start to finish.
Indian Hills Community College’s New Multipurpose Facility
Three years in the making, this site relocation is complete. ICN was approached by Indian Hills Community College (IHCC) regarding a construction project for a new building in Centerville. This location holds significant importance for the Network as it is classified as a Part II site.
The project involved the college constructing a state-of-the-art multipurpose facility to accommodate various new classes, trade schools, faculty offices, the college's new data room, and our new FOTS room. As the project progressed, initial designs were replaced with detailed drawings, and construction was initiated by the college after demolishing several old buildings to make way for the new facility.
Many ICN groups collaborated with the college’s IT department, the contractor who was awarded the project, and the incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC).
- Our Outside Plant (OSP) group ensured planning had been made for the fiber and copper that would support the new facility.
- Our engineering team oversaw circuit design for all the customers we support and took this opportunity to upgrade some hardware to new, more efficient equipment.
- Our Facilities team oversaw the new FOTS room design, ensuring that there would be adequate space, power, HVAC, and backup power.
The plan progressed with an ‘all hands’ effort to bring this project to a close in early May. We informed the impacted customers and gracefully turned down our equipment. There were many moving parts during the cutover:
- The ILEC connected the fiber at a new hand hole.
- One of ICN’s splicers was onsite to splice the new fibers.
- Another team dismantled (unracked) the equipment and transported it to the new facility and reassembled it in the new FOTS room.
- ICN connected fiber jumpers from our FOTS room to the adjacent community college data room to provide a circuit.
- IHCC migrated their hardware into the new space at the same time.
Like many cutovers, this maintenance window ran from 10pm on the night of the scheduled cutover and into the early morning hours. After the new FOTS room was turned up, our team decommissioned the older FOTS room, so that the building could be demolished.
A Site For Sale: Moving From the Sac City Middle School to the Elementary School
The director of IT at Sac City Middle School reached out to ICN with news that the school would be closing, the building would be sold, and the ICN would need to find a new location for this Part II site. After several site surveys later, we landed on a location at the elementary school about a mile way.
We looked at our previous decommissioned sites and found a suitable communications hut located in Williamsburg, Iowa. Following some TLC on the recently renovated hut, which involved installing a new floor, applying a fresh coat of paint, and giving it a thorough power wash; the hut was then moved from Williamsburg to Sac City, fully prepared for its new intended use. During this time, Outside Plant coordinated with the other providers and built a fiber route to the new location.
The project was put on hold in 2022 and picked back up in the fall 2023. Around this time, we were notified that the school had sold the building creating a sense of urgency to get the project moving. We reached out to the new owner and bought some time, but there was much work to be done, which included:
- New wiring installed to support the equipment for AC power and backup power.
- We paid for a transformer and brought power to the hut.
- Migrated equipment to the new site.
- Installed a new generator and propane tank.
With all of the prerequisite work completed, the site move was scheduled for early May. Customers were notified, and the migration took place with the unracked equipment from the prior FOTS room, which was transported across town, reconstituted, and brought back online.
