What comes after new Openreach ducts?

Perhaps the many knowledgeable users of this forum can help me understand why Openreach have carried out some apparently quite expensive civil works.
Some background: I live in a village in one of two connected closes of 29 dwellings built in the late 1970s. All services (no gas) are underground and the copper telephone connection to my house arrives internally with no external junction box.
The thinkbroadband map shows the properties to be “Under Review” for Project Gigabit. A couple of months ago I received a letter from CityFibre, in a buff envelope with HMG’s logo on it, saying they were planning the build in the area and inviting me to register interest for FTTP. Openreach’s broadband checker returns “We’ll be building in this area in the next year”, again inviting a registration of interest.
This month, Openreach’s contractor carried out some civil works installing ducts and a couple of “boxes” (jointing chambers?) in the footpath. They were on site for 2 weeks and, using a mini-digger etc., laid 100 metres of ducting from the start of one close, round the corner and into the start of the other. They passed just 6 dwellings with a little black box installed adjacent to the boundary of each.
It cannot have been a cheap process. There were multi-way traffic lights for the duration and masses of signs and barriers.
Why have Openreach done this work? Presumably it is a precursor to more activity. There is a dearth of information. Will other methods be used to connect the other properties to fibre? Will it be Openreach or CityFibre? Underground or, horror of horrors, new poles & overhead cables?
Perhaps someone can say what has happened elsewhere. Thanks in anticipation!
(PS – a cynic could say that Openreach is not too worried about the cost of building assets in rural areas as it adds to the base for RAB rate of return regulation.)

Probably no existing duct or duct 100 into a small joint box. Not uncommon for the copper to be buried and the copper lead in goes direct into the property .
That will all need new duct overlay , guess polling was not an option

You're getting FTTP, the final installation when you order the service will be to run the fibre from those little boxes on the property boundary up to your wall.

Many thanks for replies. Regrettably,I was not passed by the ducting and I am 70 metres and across a carriageway from the nearest junction box.

I think you have a good chance of being able to place an order soon as seems the new ducts already built are to serve the closes.

As I understand it Openreach changed their duct building policy in such senarios from installing the duct up to the boundary of all properties planned to be served prior to enabling the area as under that policy they were giving the altnets a free ride as they would be able to jump on the new ducts as soon as built for their own services.

My guess is once you can place an order it will be a two stage order, first step will be the duct required from the existing end point will be built as far as your property, each property passed on the way will get the duct built up to their boundary. So, if you were no5, 1 - 4 would get their duct built to the boundary. If, later say no10 orders then the duct
gets extended from outside no5 past 6 - 9 etc. eventually the whole lot gets built.

Once you can place an order it could take several months to actually have your service live depending on how long it takes to plan and install the required ducts in the street, etc.

In reply to a post by Studium:

Why have Openreach done this work?

It's hard to say. It could be required for fibre spine network (cabling to exchange, rather than to individual properties). It could be required because someone has ordered a leased line. It could be because a multicore copper cable has degraded but there's not enough room in existing duct to pull a new one through.

Or... it might be part of an FTTP build. But as you say, that's an expensive way of doing it.

You mention "a little black box installed adjacent to the boundary of each" - can you upload a picture somewhere, and then post a link? Are these boxes flat in the pavement, like you sometimes see for water stopcocks? These could be "Toby boxes", although it's more common for Cityfibre to deploy these than Openreach. These would indeed be for individual property access: the final connection would be from the Toby box, across the garden or driveway if any, when the customer order is placed.

Thanks. They are definitely "Toby Boxes" and look just like the photo illustration of one in a web site of Hexatronic UK, even as far as the abutment to the boundary.
By the way, I talked to a couple of former colleagues who were involved in electricity utility regulation and they concurred that the RAB formula tends to lead to higher infrastructure costs compared with a normal commercial operator.