AWP Safety Traffic Management Office (TMO) Improves Cost Certainty for Broadband Leader Lumos

AWP Safety is using its unmatched expertise and scale to help North America’s broadband industry lay millions of miles of fiber and expand internet connectivity for communities. The company’s Traffic Management Office (TMO) provides large broadband providers with concierge-level support from C-suite leaders to field supervisors with two goals in mind: elevating customers’ worksite safety and driving down their cost-per-mile.

AWP Safety’s TMO approach provides customers with an extensive level of visibility and control through detailed planning, budgeting and forecasting services. This results in optimal traffic management configurations at the right time and scale, creating safer, more compliant worksites – at an optimal price point.

Challenge

Complex, costly broadband expansions across multiple regions

Already a leading broadband provider in Virginia and the Carolinas, Lumos Networks is making significant investments to expand its fiber-optic network throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and into Kentucky, Ohio and the greater Chicago area. In Illinois alone, Lumos’s $246 million investment will bring affordable high-speed internet to millions of underserved and unserved residents and businesses.

Lumos relies on a complex network of 20+ subcontractors to install underground and aerial fiber at hundreds of worksites daily. Historically, its subcontractors were responsible for procuring traffic control services at their discretion in a cost-plus structure. This approach made it difficult for Lumos to plan, budget and ultimately quantify its overall traffic control spend. This led to near-term budget challenges as well as made it difficult to predict/forecast an accurate price-per-foot when considering new market expansion.

Solution

AWP Safety technology, data and insights improve Lumos’s speed, efficiency and cost structure

Lumos selected AWP Safety as its preferred traffic control partner based on scale, coverage and engineering expertise all managed by the professional and business services provided by the Traffic Management Office (TMO). Developed with large broadband, utility and road construction customers in mind, the TMO is inspired by the concept of a Program Management Office (PMO) many companies use to centrally manage strategic projects. The TMO model helps AWP Safety look at customers’ traffic control needs holistically and generates data senior leaders can use to make more strategic decisions about traffic control and related operations.

“Pennies matter when you are building millions of feet of fiber,” says Daniel Latta, vice president of the South division at AWP Safety. “With our TMO model, we use safety expertise and technology to plan ahead and deliver only what customers need, when they need it. This drives cost certainty and generates data that sometimes shines a light on other opportunities for customers to improve efficiency and reduce costs associated with subcontracted work.”

AWP Safety’s TMO experts started by having meaningful conversations with Lumos senior leaders. Two priorities were identified: ensuring safe, compliant worksites and providing visibility and control over all costs related to traffic management.

With full access to Lumos’s engineering plans and digital pre-work system that tracks subcontractors’ scheduled work, AWP Safety experts export that data into the company’s own traffic control planning and forecasting technology to identify which fiber builds need traffic control. Compliance requirements are reviewed for each worksite. From there, AWP Safety crews and equipment are scheduled to ensure availability and on-time response.

“With this level of integration, we know where Lumos subcontractors will build 36 months in advance,” Latta explains. “We also target up to six weeks of soft scheduling and two weeks of hard scheduling to ensure availability. Our approach really helps Lumos mitigate their risks associated with safety, productivity and budget overruns.”

It also increases the transparency of what’s happening in the field. For instance, overtime billed by a subcontractor can be cross-referenced with AWP Safety’s simplified traffic control invoices. If there is a discrepancy, Lumos can share that information with the subcontractor to get overtime charges removed.

Additional services include:

• Local AWP Safety crew pre-planning meetings with local subcontractors to plan work
• Daily deployment of 25-35 crews across five states to provide proper worksite setups for underground and aerial fiber projects and overhead line crossings
• Monthly updates and data dashboards shared with senior leaders to share cost savings, efficiency gains and additional improvement opportunities

RESULTS

• Better traffic control budgeting and forecasting. Lumos now has monthly insights into its traffic control spend and quarterly forecast, compared to an unpredictable budget prior to working with AWP Safety.
• Optimal worksite coverage. Lumos has uninterrupted access to local AWP Safety crews, with subcontractors able to request and work with the same crews for the duration of a build.
• Future cost savings. AWP Safety data and insights reveal ways that Lumos can improve the cost structure of similar worksites in the future — ranging from more efficient equipment usage to avoiding subcontractor cancellations.
• Trusted partnership. AWP Safety has the scale and financial strength to build capacity in white space markets where Lumos is heading next.

“Lumos is growing rapidly, and our TMO solutions help them streamline the complexity of using multiple subcontractors and support their robust expansion timeline,” Latta says. “While our primary focus is always safety, we’re also helping them control costs – freeing up cash for them to invest in future expansions.”

To discuss your next project with a dedicated AWP Safety Sales representative, request an estimate.