Backhoe cuts fiber-optic cable north of Spencer
By Russ Oechslin, Journal correspondent | Posted: Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Randy Albert of Spencer, Iowa, left, and Tim Stahle of Sioux City, both Qwest employees, work to "weld" tiny fiber-optic cables Monday afternoon. (Photo by Russ Oechslin)
SPENCER, Iowa -- Qwest Comminications technicians figured they were right on schedule late Monday afternoon to restore emergency telephone communications to much of Dickinson County and full service to the communities of Milford, Arnolds Park and Okoboji.
Monday's outage was the result of a fiber-optic cable cut in north Spencer where tiles were being laid for drainage along the west shoulder of U.S. Highway 71.
Allen Purvis of C.E. Construction Company of Hampton, Iowa, was operating a backhoe when he cut the fiber-optic cable. Both Purvis and his boss, Larry Havig, said the line was not marked.
The line was cut at about 9 a.m. Monday and affected all Qwest telephone customers in Arnolds Park, Okoboji and Milford, as well as 911 and long distance service to the western portion of Dickinson County, including Lake Park.
According to Qwest spokeswoman DeViney-McNeley in Des Moines, other services may have also been affected as well, including service to some telephone users in Spirit Lake. Those services, she said, were not to Qwest customers, but customers of other utility companies that lease the lines cut Monday morning.
While the cut cable appeared to be about an inch in diameter, what's inside is much smaller, explained Qwest tech Tim Stahle, who drove to Spencer from Sioux City to make the repairs.
Normally this would have been handled locally, tech Randy Albert, who is based in Spencer, said. "But as fate would have it, the guy who does this work is on vacation today."
It's painstaking work, noted Stahle. After the color-coding is stripped from each hair-thin piece of fiber, it is cleaned with a solvent, then welded to a length of another cable that was prepared in a similar fashion. And the 48 lines in the first package must be attached to the correct wire in the second package.
The 24 pairs, according to Stahle, replace about 900 copper-wire pairs which would have taken much longer to splice together if they were cut.
Limited service was restored shortly before 5 p.m.
Monday's outage was the result of a fiber-optic cable cut in north Spencer where tiles were being laid for drainage along the west shoulder of U.S. Highway 71.
Allen Purvis of C.E. Construction Company of Hampton, Iowa, was operating a backhoe when he cut the fiber-optic cable. Both Purvis and his boss, Larry Havig, said the line was not marked.
The line was cut at about 9 a.m. Monday and affected all Qwest telephone customers in Arnolds Park, Okoboji and Milford, as well as 911 and long distance service to the western portion of Dickinson County, including Lake Park.
According to Qwest spokeswoman DeViney-McNeley in Des Moines, other services may have also been affected as well, including service to some telephone users in Spirit Lake. Those services, she said, were not to Qwest customers, but customers of other utility companies that lease the lines cut Monday morning.
While the cut cable appeared to be about an inch in diameter, what's inside is much smaller, explained Qwest tech Tim Stahle, who drove to Spencer from Sioux City to make the repairs.
Normally this would have been handled locally, tech Randy Albert, who is based in Spencer, said. "But as fate would have it, the guy who does this work is on vacation today."
It's painstaking work, noted Stahle. After the color-coding is stripped from each hair-thin piece of fiber, it is cleaned with a solvent, then welded to a length of another cable that was prepared in a similar fashion. And the 48 lines in the first package must be attached to the correct wire in the second package.
The 24 pairs, according to Stahle, replace about 900 copper-wire pairs which would have taken much longer to splice together if they were cut.
Limited service was restored shortly before 5 p.m.
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