A contractor for a massive overpass project currently underway at Prescott accidentally severed the main fiber-optic communications cable for AT&T services for Hope shortly before mid-day Friday, blacking out all electronic and long-distance communications for the city.
Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department District Engineer Don Donaldson said this morning that the cable cut came during routine subsurface work on the project.
“The contractor was undercutting soft material where the roadway will tie-in to Highway 67,” Donaldson said. “They had all the utilities located, but the fiber-optic line wasn't as deep as they thought it was.”
He said fiber-optics cable is typically buried 30 inches or more below the surface, where the cable damaged Friday was only 24 inches below ground. Donaldson said there is no good explanation why the cable was too shallow. He said state regulations mandate the 24-inch minimum.
The contractor, Earnest Investments, of Shreveport, La., had used proper methods to locate the cable, he said, but could not accurately estimate its depth.
The incident shut down all internet service in Hope, as well as all AT&T-based services carried by fiber-optic cable until shortly before 5 p.m.
Hope Police Department dispatch of 911 services for Hempstead County was routed via land line to Nevada County dispatch, which relayed messages by radio to HPD dispatch, HPD Lieutenant Jim Bush said this morning.
“We tried to get everybody we could,” Bush said.
The incident also disconnected Hempstead County from the Arkansas Crime Information Center, cut City of Hope internet-based communications and delayed accounting and billing by Hope Water and Light Corp.
All electronic transactions based on the cable system were also disrupted for banking and other commercial services for most of the day Friday.
“We had to do things the old-fashioned way,” Hope Mayor Dennis Ramsey said Friday. “Pen and paper.”
