AT&T to move phone cable for bridge

Nevada Daily Mail

An underground telephone cable that delayed a bridge replacement in Washington Township is set to be moved next month.

Lynn Seaver, bridge foreman for Vernon County, said an AT&T engineer contacted him earlier this week to give an update on the cable. The engineer told Seaver the cable would be moved on March 7.

Seaver and Vernon County Commissioners have tried to determine the status of the cable for several months, but calls and messages left for the telephone company were not returned.

The Vernon County Commission first inspected the Washington Township bridge, located between Jayhawker and 1513 roads, in April 2013. The bridge was identified for replacement because of age and settling issues. It was determined that for the bridge to be replaced, a nearby underground AT&T telephone cable would have to be moved.

Commissioner Neal Gerster was initially told by AT&T engineers in July 2013 that the cable could be moved within a month. Commission minutes from August and September 2013 show that the cable was not moved, and commissioners said further calls to AT&T engineers went unreturned.

Seaver said that despite the cable's move, replacement of the bridge will now be delayed because other bridge projects are already in progress. He said that there is no set timeframe for when work could begin, and that because the bridge construction crew is small, it's not possible to complete more than one bridge project at a time.

AT&T told the Daily Mail that the process of moving the cable would begin as soon as possible.

"We are working to move the underground AT&T cable as quickly as possible at the site of the bridge project for Washington Township. We apologize for any delay over the need to relocate this cable," the company said.