Quantum Loophole, which is building a 43-mile fiber ring connecting the company’s 2,100+ acre Quantum Frederick data center campus in Maryland to the Ashburn, Virginia ecosystem, completed its North Potomac River Bore crossing, the second of two Potomac River crossings for the QLoop network conduit system.
QLoop is designed to hold 34 conduits with full capacity of more than 235,000 strands of fiber. When complete, the system is designed to be capable of connecting Quantum Frederick to the Ashburn internet ecosystem in under one half millisecond Round Trip Time (RTT).
“This has been by far one of the most challenging projects I have done in my entire career, with each river crossing taking about six-months to complete,” comments Josh Snowhorn, Founder and CEO of Quantum Loophole. “Now we continue with the terrestrial conduit built deep underground, placing our color coded 34x2” ducts, designed to hold 6,912 fiber trunks for a total capacity of over 235,000 strands of fiber. When complete, QLoop will be one of the largest capacity systems ever installed on a middle-mile metro network.”
In parallel developments, civil construction at the Quantum Frederick site is underway. At the 2100+ acre site, construction of roads, water, sewer and grading for a number of areas including the first substation are in motion. The substation site, taking up to 20 acres on the campus, is being graded for the first phase of power which will offer up to 240 MW. Power at the development site is scheduled to become available in April 2024. Soon thereafter, the second phase of power will be underway bringing an additional 336 MW of power to the site with additional tranches of power to follow in short order.
“We could not have done this project without the incredible dedication of the Quantum Loophole team,” Snowhorn continues. “We continue toward completion of our QLoop system with hundreds of feet of conduit a day being deployed. With the bores under the Potomac completed, it’s smooth sailing from here.”
