Jacksonville Aviation Authority fiberoptic project to lay backbone for airport IT

A Jacksonville Aviation Authority project to install fiberoptics for data and communication should have its first phase, which runs from the JAA administration building to the terminal, completed in April.

The project — which costs about $2.1 million — is funded largely by passenger facility charges. Only 10 percent of the funding will come from JAA cash.

Phases II and III should be completed in July and October of this year.

“It lays the foundation for future upgrades to our IT infrastructure,” said CEO Steve Grossman. “It reduces our opportunity to fail.”

The total design cost for all three phases is $130,000 — $117,000 of which comes from passenger facility chargers. The construction for all phases is just over $2 million. Passenger facility charges will cover about $1.8 million of that cost.