Less than seven weeks after Hurricane Sandy, Verizon has finalized another important step in the transformation of the communications infrastructure of lower Manhattan by completing the installation of fiber-optic cables between the company’s two critical central switching offices there and buildings put out of service by the storm surge.

The completion of the fiber-installation phase of the project – with more than 5,000 miles of fiber strands already in place - enables Verizon to modernize communications capabilities for customers as it restores services to the businesses and office buildings in lower Manhattan that were impacted by the hurricane.

While the company has been installing the fiber infrastructure, it is also working with landlords as they ready their properties for the return of tenants. The reconstruction of telecom rooms – frequently relocated to upper floors – power and access to those rooms are on the critical path to the restoration of communications services. 

As building owners and managers complete these steps, Verizon is completing the work of connecting the newly laid fiber to new electronic systems and turning up service.  The steps these building owners are taking, in conjunction with the new fiber infrastructure from Verizon, will provide additional protection for the communications infrastructure in lower Manhattan in the event of future large-scale weather events.

Verizon continues to operate two command centers in Manhattan where its operations and engineering teams can swiftly design and reconfigure new fiber systems and routes, and then work with building managers to identify space within their structure to locate the new equipment, electronics and cabling.

“The work Verizon is doing now will make us a smarter, faster, better-connected city and region,” said Mitchell Moss, Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at

New York University.  “These repairs will actually lay the groundwork for a new era of growth and higher efficiency, which will benefit everyone.”

Thousands of miles of fiber strands installed

The company estimates that more than 70 percent of the affected buildings served by its Broad Street switching office, where copper services were most significantly damaged, have fiber-optic cables and facilities serving them, with many buildings downtown having full service.  

In addition, the company estimates that it has already installed in the dense lower Manhattan area more than 5,000 miles of fiber strands.  Thus far, more than 100 tons of copper cables have been removed from the company’s network in the area – 30 percent more than all the copper in the Statue of Liberty.  And more is being removed each day.

“We are doing years’ worth of work in just a few weeks’ time, and doing it round the clock,” said Martin Burvill, senior vice president of global operations for Verizon Enterprise Solutions.  “We are keenly focused on transforming the communications infrastructure of lower Manhattan with this new architecture in a way that fully benefits our residential and business customers. 

Verizon has also had a dialogue with manufacturers and vendors that supply the industry with electronics necessary to terminate sophisticated fiber networks and the wide range of services they deliver.  The great need for equipment prompted by Hurricane Sandy restoration efforts continues to put pressure on supply chains of specialized equipment, which in turn affects restoration efforts.

Copper cables were destroyed that served businesses and residences in the area south of Worth Street, from the East River to the Hudson River.  These cables were rendered inoperable as the result of the unprecedented flooding, the mixture of salt water and diesel fuel in some buildings from compromised tanks that were in place to fuel generators, and the loss of air pressurization systems that help protect copper cables from water infiltration.