As reliable internet becomes more and more important to everyday life, internet access in rural areas is still not a given.
To address the all-too-common issue, a series of projects by the Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD) is bringing high-speed broadband to parts of the county it may not have reached otherwise.
At a recent Lewis County PUD Board of Commissioners meeting, the district's Broadband and External Funding Manager Willie Painter presented an update on current broadband efforts throughout the county. The public utility district is currently working on six grant-funded broadband projects, with three having already broken ground and in varying stages of completion.
The first of the project areas, which is focused on the Boistfort region, is set to be completed in December while more project areas — Vader, Elbe, Mineral, Ashford and Bunker Creek North and South — are expected to finish work in October 2026.
Other project areas — Randle, Packwood, Pe Ell, Doty and Dryad — are still in the engineering phase and will be completed in December 2027 or later. Work for each of the areas includes engineering and installing miles of what the PUD refers to as lit open access fiber, which is not just the cable in the ground but also includes the infrastructure used to transmit data through the cables.
It is called open access fiber because the PUD installs and operates the infrastructure, but does not provide internet services. Instead, the PUD has a marketplace with competing internet providers where people connected to the district's broadband network can choose between providers.
According to the Lewis County PUD, the district first began looking into broadband in 2020 when it put out a survey in the county asking residents about their access to broadband and high-speed internet. Seven out of 10 county residents said their homes did not have broadband access.
Since the district did not have the money to construct an entire broadband network itself, it began pursuing grant funding to bring broadband to areas of the county that didn't already have broadband access from another provider. Existing access is part of a list of factors that make certain areas eligible for grant funding and has a big impact on which parts of the county will see broadband investment in the coming years.
The program to expand broadband services is reliant on grant funding, with each of the project areas being funded independent of the others. As part of the grant funds, residents in a project area can sign up and apply to have broadband run to their home with large parts — or, in some cases, all — of the bill being covered by the grant funding. While some project areas will cover installation fees up to $2,500, others will cover installation fees entirely. The cost on the consumer end depends on how far the home is from the main line of the broadband network. It covers the cost of digging a trench between the roadway and the home.
The effort has received constant support from the PUD commissioners. One commissioner, Dave Fenn, even lives in one of the project areas singled out for broadband investment and can testify to the value of the new installation.
“As a PUD commissioner, I have been pleased to vote for contracts to bring true high-speed broadband to rural areas that have not had reliable or any service,” Fenn said. “Living in one of those poorly served areas, we are excited to have quality service coming to our area.”
County residents who think their home or business might be in an eligible project area can go to the Lewis County PUD website to find out at https://lcpud.broadbandportal.net.
Below is more information about the six Lewis County PUD broadband projects planned for the next three years.
Boistfort
The Boistfort project was the first to break ground, as it started construction in 2023. It was awarded $4.25 million in grant money from the Washington State Broadband Office, the state Public Works Board and the United State Department of Agriculture in 2022. There are 370 homes or other structures in the project area eligible to be hooked up to the network, with costs being covered at least in part by grant funds.
The “spine” of the project, which refers to the main broadband cable that will run throughout the project area, will stretch approximately 37 miles from Chehalis through Adna and south to Boistfort.
Vader
The Vader project was awarded $5.2 million in funding in 2022 by the Washington State Public Works Board. An estimated 1,135 buildings in the project area are eligible to be hooked up to the broadband network, with costs being covered at least in part by grant funding.
The district will install roughly 43 miles of fiber optic cable for the project in the Vader area and stretching out east toward Toledo and north toward Winlock.
Elbe, Mineral, Ashford
This project area was also awarded funds by the Washington State Public Works Board in 2022. The $4.73 million in grant funding will allow the district to install 51 miles of fiber optic cable for the project's main line starting along state Route 7 about halfway between Morton and Elbe, running through Elbe and then stretching eastward into Ashford.
An estimated 1,363 buildings in the project area will be eligible to be connected to the main broadband line, with costs for running a line to a house covered at least in part by grant funds for the project.
Bunker Creek
The Bunker Creek project area is the second largest of the six Lewis County PUD broadband projects currently underway. It was awarded $11.96 million in grant funds in 2023 by the Washington State Broadband Office. The project includes installing approximately 69 miles of fiber optic cable in remote areas around Adna and Boistfort stretching from the north end of Bunker Creek Road to the south side of the Wildwood area.
More than 1,900 structures in the project area will qualify for connection, with installation costs covered at least in part by grant funds.
Randle, Packwood
The East Lewis County project is the largest of all the broadband projects as measured by the amount of funding, the length of cable needed and the amount of locations eligible for connection. The project was awarded $24.2 million in grant funds in 2023 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture ReConnect program, which funds similar projects in rural areas across the country. The project will run 104 miles of fiber optic cable from the west side of Randle through Randle and to Packwood to the north along U.S. Highway 12 and state Route 123, terminating just south of the Pierce County line.
An estimated 2,940 structures in the project area will be eligible for connection to the broadband network, with installation being covered at least in part by grant funds.
Pe Ell, Doty, Dryad
The Lewis County PUD was awarded $5.6 million in funding for the west county broadband project in 2024 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Washington State Broadband Office. The project will lay 35 miles of new fiber optic cable starting along state Route 6 near Meskill and Ceres Hill and following the highway through Pe Ell to the Pacific County line.
As part of the project, 622 structures will be eligible for connection to the broadband network, with installation costs being covered at least in part by grant funds.
