No Time To Talk

Since May 2001, KCI has been working at a breakneck pace with Bechtel Corporation to help AT&T expand its telecommunications network in Florida. The facility enhancements are part of AT&T’s third-generation or 3G overlay program under way in select cities nationwide.

Working under agreements with Bechtel, AT&T’s contract manager, KCI’s project teams have provided structural analysis and other engineering services, completing drawings for as many as 50 sites a week, and nearly 300 sites in five months. “The pace has been fast and challenging from the beginning,” said project manager Samuel E. Arbuthnot III. “We pulled telecommunications staff from Raleigh North Carolina and Tampa into the field to conduct the inventories and structural reviews of existing facilities.”

AT&T is adding state-of-the-art equipment, including antennae, cable, and cabinets, that will enhance the carrier’s telecommunications, internet, and other wireless data transmission capabilities. “We’ve finished our work in the Orlando market, and we’re wrapping up sites in Tampa,” Arbuthnot added.

Carlos E. Ostria, PE, head of KCI’s Laurel, MD, Office, notes that KCI is continuing its partnership with Bechtel as it moves into other East Coast regions. “We’re currently in final negotiations with Bechtel in the Baltimore-Washington, DC, market for the 3G buildout of several hundred AT&T sites.”

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