Broadband

Opinion: The fiber is in the yard — The BEAD money isn't

By Stephen M. Saunders MBE Oct 2, 2026 6:10am

Virginia's Eastern Shore authority says it has materials but cannot start its awarded build
Its director says no grant dollars have arrived, with environmental review still pending
A small public operator is carrying the cost while residents wait for service

There is a particularly maddening kind of infrastructure delay: the materials are on site, the community knows an award was made, but the people responsible for the work cannot put a shovel in the ground. Robert Bridgham, executive director of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Broadband Authority, says that is where his 20-person organization finds itself with its Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) project. “We've got materials sitting in our yard and yet we can't start breaking ground yet.”

The authority had a preliminary award, Bridgham says, then had to reapply after the program changed. It has since completed its contract with the Virginia entity administering the grant, but the next milestone depends on federal review of environmental studies. He says there is no definite deadline. Asked whether the authority has received the money, his answer is admirably short: “Nope, not a dollar.”

Professional photo of a clean-shaven man in a suit jacket white shirt and necktie — Robert Bridgham, executive director of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Broadband Authority (Eastern Shore of Virginia Broadband Authority)

The delay has a cash cost. Bridgham says the authority was authorized to buy materials in advance and did so to protect its schedule against supply problems. But it cannot yet be reimbursed for those purchases, and construction done before release of funds would not qualify for reimbursement without prior authorization. His team has funding of its own that could cover a substantial portion of the work; the grant rules make starting it a different calculation. Meanwhile residents ask why an announced award has not become a connection — not an unreasonable question.

This is how administrative uncertainty becomes an operating cost for a small organization: staff time goes into managing an award twice, capital sits in supplies and the construction season continues to move. None of that gets a household online.

This matters especially on the Eastern Shore, where the authority's municipal model serves places the private market has struggled to reach. Bridgham says it must sustain itself financially but returns its focus to customers and the community, including price reductions, when its finances permit. He does not present public ownership as a universal answer: different markets may need public, private or hybrid arrangements. His account is about an operator ready to execute under the arrangement already chosen.

I have argued that BEAD is failing rural America. Bridgham's account makes the failure tangible.

Opinion: The fiber is in the yard — The BEAD money isn't

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