Fiber, broadband projects by Oregon highways on hold after Kotek data center order

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s recent directive barring data centers on state lands is creating roadblocks for telecommunications companies building out fiber-optic cable networks that transmit internet data and that are typically buried along state highways.

Kotek’s September directive told state agencies to pause approving new or pending leases, easements and right-of-way permits for data centers sited on state properties and lands. 

In response, the Oregon Department of Transportation placed on hold at least 20 state right-of-way permit applications from fiber-optic companies, according to records the transportation agency released to the Capital Chronicle. 

Agency officials are verifying whether the projects are “specific to data centers” because they have limited insight into their whole purpose, according to spokesperson Kevin Glenn. He said the agency did not set a deadline for the companies to respond to officials’ inquiries and that “the timing is dependent on the proposers.”

“The proposed applications are to permit installation of a large amount of buried broadband or fiber conduit on state right of way, typically along the highway shoulder, which strongly indicated a potential connection to data centers,” he wrote in an email. “We’ve asked the companies to describe their projects to better understand if they are in fact associated with data centers.”

Three fiber-optic companies — Denver-based Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., the multinational company Lumen and the California-based fiber optic company Intermountain Infrastructure Group — control the 20 paused applications. All own large-scale fiber optic networks made up of underground cables connecting data centers, cellular providers and other large-scale information processing facilities across the West, including Oregon. 

Zayo in 2025 completed a 622-mile long-haul fiber optic cable route that connects data centers in Prineville and Umatilla to Reno, Nevada. The transportation department paused nine permits the company needs to lay cables along Oregon highways from Morrow to Multnomah counties, and between Wheeler and Clackamas counties. 

Lumen also owns six data centers in Oregon, including ones in Portland, Eugene and Bandon. The transportation department paused nine permits the company needs to lay underground cables from Wasco to Umatilla, Baker, Lincoln, Linn and Malheur counties. 

Intermountain does not own any data centers in Oregon, but the company has been trying to build a fiber infrastructure corridor across the Pacific Northwest that was slated for completion this year. Now, two of its permits to expand into Umatilla County are on pause.

Representatives for the companies have not responded to requests for comment from the Capital Chronicle over the past two weeks.

But the Data Center Coalition, an industry group representing tech companies, said the permit pauses were  burdensome to companies that were otherwise following all the state’s rules, and that it would have a chilling effect on business investment in Oregon. 

“Now many of those same projects face significant uncertainty about whether that work can move forward,” Khara Boender, the coalition’s West Coast director of government affairs, said in a statement. “Pausing agency work midstream on projects that have followed the process sends a concerning signal to companies weighing long-term investment in Oregon and puts at risk the jobs, tax revenue and community benefits these projects deliver.”