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Disconnected: Truck driver takes out 700 phone lines

Published 12:09 am Thursday, February 11, 2016

By PAULA ANN SOLIS

A telephone wire for 700 Juneau phone lines is sprawled across the left turn lane on Vintage Drive Wednesday after an Arrow Refuse truck's garbage lift hooked on the line, bringing it down and traffic to a stop.
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A telephone wire for 700 Juneau phone lines is sprawled across the left turn lane on Vintage Drive Wednesday after an Arrow Refuse truck's garbage lift hooked on the line, bringing it down and traffic to a stop.
A telephone wire for 700 Juneau phone lines is sprawled across the left turn lane on Vintage Drive Wednesday after an Arrow Refuse truck's garbage lift hooked on the line, bringing it down and traffic to a stop.
Alaska Communications employees assess damage to a phone line that an Arrow Refuse driver brought down with his truck Wednesday. The incident took place on the corner of Vintage Boulevard and Riverside Drive, making left turns onto Riverside impossible after Juneau Police Department officers shut down traffic in that direction.
A telephone wire for 700 Juneau phone lines is sprawled across the left turn lane on Vintage Drive Wednesday after an Arrow Refuse truck's garbage lift hooked on the line, bringing it down and traffic to a stop.

An Arrow Refuse driver brought down a telephone line while making a right turn onto Riverside Drive Wednesday morning, potentially interrupting several phone calls in the process.

The driver had a trash lifting bar raised on the back of the truck while passing through Vintage Boulevard that grabbed the wire and brought it down as it attempted to turn, according to an Empire employee’s first-hand account.

Arrow Refuse is a garbage collecting subsidiary of Alaska Pacific Environmental Services.

Juneau Police Department officers were at the intersection between Safeway and the Mendenhall Mall, directing traffic and helping keep the area clear while Alaska Communications employees assessed the damage.

An Alaska communications employee said the wire, which had to be cut for repairs, controls an estimated 700 phone lines in the area.

The city manager’s clerk office released a statement later in the day reporting no phone, Internet or email service available in the Dimond Park Aquatic center, just up the street from where the wire went down.

Department of Transportation traffic signal technician Josh Mahle said it appears the incident will not affect signals lights in the area, but the poles holding the signals up are clearly slanted and may need further repairs.

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