What do you do when you’re a small Caribbean island nation with a bustling tourism trade, a vast global financial industry, and a communications infrastructure that needs an upgrade? In the 21st century, both your visitors and your businesses demand a high level of connectivity.
The answer seems simple: you build a fiber optic network.
The complication: that bustling tourism trade and global financial industry.
George Town sees around 1.5 million tourists each year. It’s also home to more than 600 banks and trust companies. And let’s not forget all the businesses that support all that tourism and banking. Tearing up the streets in a tiny, bustling island city is not going to make anyone happy.
Enter stage right: Slimlines Trenching and EZ Street Asphalt
Roger Corbin established Slimlines Trenching specifically to meet the demands of a project like the installation of George Town’s fiber optic cable infrastructure. Working with Ditch Witch microtrenching equipment and EZ Street cold asphalt, Mr Corbin took on the unique demands of microtrenching in a busy tropical paradise.
The road work took place at night. Besides the benefit of cooler temperatures, it allowed them to minimize their impact on traffic and commerce. Over four months, Slimlines Trenching laid approximately 17,000 feet of conduit. They worked at night in four 12-hour shifts per week.
In an application like this, the EZ Street product has several benefits:
- EZ Street asphalt it’s available 24/7. You buy it, you store it, and use it when you’re ready.
- The reliance on a hot asphalt plant is gone. And with it, the anxiety of having to use that hot asphalt before it stops being hot.
- Using EZ Street asphalt in the 35-pound bag lets the bags be staged at intervals along the trench, providing quick and easy application of the product.
Once the 12-inch trench was cut, the fiber optic line was installed. Then, the void between the conduit and the trench sidewall was filled with sifted beach sand. The remaining 8 inches of trench was filled with EZ Street cold patch. Slimline Trenching used a custom-built packing wheel that fits down in the trench. Pushed along by the worker using it, the wheel weighs about 300 pounds and compacts the material in the trench.
The final result befits an island paradise. The cutting, installation, and patching with EZ Street product happened so quickly and efficiently, many business owners had no idea it had even been done. The EZ Street micropatching has held up to heavy rain, heavy traffic, and anything else the tropical conditions can throw at it. Known widely as the pothole patchers friend, EZ Street cold asphalt also helps microtrenching contractors fly quickly and efficiently below the radar.
