The Timaru District Council has let a contract to Downer EDI to install a fibre optic cable link between the council offices in King George Place and the Caroline Bay Aquatic Centre.

Council district services manager Ashley Harper says in an aquatic centre progress report to councillors to be presented tomorrow (eds: August 16), that the cable will take 12 weeks to install and the work will be completed by November.

The new cable will be installed via existing ducting to the piazza on the Bay Hill and then through new ducting to the Bay Viaduct, Te Weka Street and on to the aquatic centre.
The fibre optic technology, allowing cleaner and quicker data rate transfer than metal cables, will be used to integrate council booking and security systems with the new centre, which is scheduled to open in July next year.

Mr Harper said the new fibre optic cable would also be used for other purposes.
It would play a part in upgrading surveillance systems on Caroline Bay, conveying existing Bay camera images back to the police from a feed at the Bay Viaduct; and it would provide an opportunity to synchronise State Highway One traffic light signals with new lights to be installed at the Te Weka-Evans Street intersection.

“The council is also looking at new software for its online booking systems used for council-owned assets such as the Theatre Royal, halls and parks that will extract the best that fibre optic technology can offer,” he said.

ENDS

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