South County : Phone Service Lost After Contractor Cuts Cables

About 8,000 Newport Beach and Irvine businesses south of the airport lost telephone service Tuesday afternoon when a contractor drilled into six underground telephone cables, a Pacific Bell spokesman said.

Pacific Bell expected some of the businesses to have service restored by this morning, but the last repairs are not expected to be completed until mid-afternoon, spokesman Michael Runzler said

The damage occurred under the northbound off-ramp from Jamboree Road to the Corona del Mar Freeway, Runzler said. The contractor’s drill bit extensively damaged at least one cable; damage to the other five was still being assessed.

Businesses with the prefixes 476, 752, 833, 851 and 955 lost service, he said.

Runzler did not know the name of the contracting firm, which was repairing street lights or traffic signals, he said. The contractor had checked with Underground Service Alert, an agency that keeps track of the location of underground utilities, “but for some reason they still hit the cables,” Runzler said.

At least one lane of the freeway was closed by the telephone company repairs, which involved splicing cables, a “very time-consuming process,” Runzler said.