Blast blamed for Internet, phone outage
Construction crew damages above ground fibre-optic line along Highway 3
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, June 16, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Northwestel and the Department of Infrastructure are investigating after a construction company accidentally severed a fibre-optic line while blasting along on Highway 3 Tuesday.
A fibre-optic line was severed Tuesday when construction crews were blasting at this quarry along Highway 3 between Yellowknife and Behchoko. The overhead line, about 110 metres from the blast, was cut when it was hit by a rock from the explosion. - photo courtesy of Department of Infrastructure |
The accident caused a six-hour Internet, cellphone, cable television and long distance outage across the city.
Greg Hanna, spokesperson for the department, identified the two Yellowknife companies involved as DTR First Nations Construction Corporation, which had subcontracted Breakaway Drilling and Blasting Ltd.
He said they were doing work for the GNWT when the mishap occurred.
According to Kevin McLeod, assistant deputy minister of the territorial government's infrastructure department, crews were blasting at a quarry along Highway 3 about halfway between Yellowknife and Behchoko to create raw materials to be used in road construction when a rock struck the overhead line between two poles. The blast occurred about 110 metres from the line itself.
"Anytime there is something that happens on a project ... we meet with the contractor and review what happened," he said, adding the department will review protocols and make sure everything that happened was preventable.
Officials from his department met with the contractor on Tuesday shortly after the blast and they will meet again next week, according to McLeod. He said he has no indication this was anything other than an accident.
"The (company) signs a contract that says they are going to follow all the plans and programs and safety measures within all the acts of the NWT," he said. "If during the review it was found that they violated something, there is something we can do. There is compensation discussed but there is no mechanism for the department of infrastructure to fine the company."
According to Matt Wallace, Whitehorse-based spokesperson for Northwestel, the outage occurred at about 1:45 p.m.
"During that time, Northwestel was able to divert some traffic onto backup microwave and satellite networks," he stated.
"Those networks don't have the capacity of the fibre line, which is why we were only able to transfer over certain traffic."
Wallace added Northwestel works with various levels of government as well as local contractors to sensitize them to the importance of calling before they perform maintenance work so the telecommunications company can advise as to the location of the fibre-optic line.
"We aim to ensure a thorough investigation is performed," he stated. "If damage was due to the actions of a third party, our practice is to pursue reimbursement for the costs associated with that damage."
Wallace has not be able to say exactly how much the repairs coast.
The outage caused headaches for some Yellowknife businesses which saw their debit machines go down.
Establishments such as Gold Range Bistro had to put their faith in their customers who didn't have cash with them.
Mary LeMouel, owner of the bistro said her business had hundreds of dollars worth of food and drink that customers could not pay for other than with a debit or credit card.
She added everybody came in the next day to settle up their tabs.
