THUNDER BAY — City of Thunder Bay and Tbaytel officials will huddle to determine what led up to a sewer and water crew damaging telephone infrastructure under Memorial Avenue.
The Monday afternoon incident occurred near Central Avenue where a city crew dug up the road to find and repair a broken water main.
In the process, their equipment struck Tbaytel fibre and copper cables, disrupting some landline, TV and internet services as well as service to some mobility customers. The Thunder Bay Police Service non-emergency phone line was out of operation Monday until almost midnight.
Sewer and Water Operations Superintendent David Warwick says his workers "were more than aware that there were some cables in the area," however "there were some issues with the locate provided that obviously caused some damage."
Warwick said he understands that Tbaytel's line locator service is contracted out to another provider.
However, a spokesperson for the phone company was unable Tuesday to discuss what might have transpired.
Asked if the city had been provided with the necessary phone line locations, Communications Coordinator Laura Foulds said "I'm not sure. I don't have that info."
Warwick said this kind of problem happens from time to time when "there are some miscommunications or some things are missed."
He said followup investigations will be conducted to determine exactly what happened in this instance.
Tbaytel was unable to say precisely how many customers were affected by the disruption, but said service was restored to all impacted mobility clients, and to most of the affected landline phone, TV and internet customers, by around 9 PM Monday.
Foulds said any customers who were still off-line should contact Tbaytel.
Repairs to the water main were set back about a day because of the damaged phone lines, but were expected to be completed before the end of the day Tuesday.
