Car crashes into utility pole, knocks out power to few stores

Lafayette Drive Utility Pole Crash

A car driven by an Oak Ridge man crashed into a utility pole near Lafayette Drive on Saturday, knocking out power to about 10 customers, including Walmart and Chick-fil-A. (Photos by Tom Scott)

A car crashed into a utility pole along Lafayette Drive on Saturday afternoon, knocking out power to a few large customers, including Walmart and Chick-fil-A.

Jeffrey Wells Wallace, 60, of Oak Ridge, was eastbound in a 2010 Toyota Prius four-door sedan on Lafayette Drive near Midway Lane when his vehicle went off the roadway and struck a utility pole about six feet off the road at about 2:45 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.

Wallace was conscious was police arrived, but he said he didn’t remember the collision, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Brandan L. Sharp said in a crash report. [Read more...]

TVA high-voltage line fails, falls into city power lines

TVA Transmission Line Fails

A 161-kV Tennessee Valley Authority transmission line failed Wednesday morning and fell into 13,200-volt city power lines below it, knocking out power to 154 customers in west Oak Ridge for four hours. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Electric Department)

A high-voltage Tennessee Valley Authority power line came loose and fell into Oak Ridge power lines below it Wednesday morning, and about 154 customers on the west end of town lost electricity for roughly four hours.

But power was restored to all customers just after 1 p.m. Wednesday, said Margaret Elgin, Oak Ridge Electric Department engineering manager.

Elgin said a 161-kilovolt TVA transmission line failed in a wooded area near Bear Creek Road in west Oak Ridge at about 9 a.m. Wednesday. As a result, a conductor came loose, and the line fell into 13,200-volt city electrical lines below it.

Elgin said there was no threat to public safety during the line failure or power outage.

[Read more...]

Man rescued from lift after tree limb falls onto power line

Culver Road Rescue

The Oak Ridge Electric Department, left, cut the power to a Culver Road home after a tree limb fell onto a line, knocking it to the ground and onto a boom lift, right, used by the homeowner trimming the tree. The man was stranded in the lift until city workers could turn off the power.

A Culver Road man trimming trees at his home was stranded in a boom lift Friday night after a tree limb fell onto a power line, knocking it to the ground and onto the lift, authorities said.

The man was able to be lowered to the ground after the Oak Ridge Electric Department disconnected the power. The man was not injured, but he was a little cold, Oak Ridge Police Officer Christopher Wallace said.

The man appeared to have been trapped about 20-30 feet in the air for about an hour on a chilly Friday night.

[Read more...]

City replaces broken South Jefferson Circle utility pole

City Replaces South Jefferson Utility Pole

Oak Ridge work crews on Monday replace a South Jefferson Circle utility pole that was damaged in a single-vehicle accident on Sunday night. (Photo by Tom Scott)

Oak Ridge work crews on Monday replaced a South Jefferson Circle utility pole that was damaged in a single-vehicle accident on Sunday night.

In that accident, a car hit a cable holding up the utility pole, breaking it and briefly knocking out power to about 690 customers on Louisiana Avenue and side streets.

The driver was reportedly taken by ambulance to Methodist Medical Center with what appeared to be minor injuries.

City workers used a utility truck to hold the pole in place through Sunday night.

Oak Ridge Electric Department Director Jack Suggs said there were no more power outages while the pole was replaced Monday afternoon.

Substation problem knocks out power

A substation problem knocked out power to a significant number of customers on Sunday evening, the Oak Ridge Electric Department reported on its Twitter feed.

However, city workers later reported that temporary repairs had been made and power restored.

Still, there was a higher risk than normal of more power outages, the city said.

Residents and businesses reported outages on Wade Lane, West Hutchison Circle, West Outer Drive, Pennsylvania Avenue, and at Cinemark Tinseltown movie theater and the businesses around it.

Electric Department: Power restored in Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge Electric Department Crew

An Oak Ridge Electric Department crew works late into the night after a violent storm Thursday. Above from right are ORED Crew Chief Aaron England, lineman Tom Lance, and apprentice lineman Mike Goodpasture.

All power has been restored, the Oak Ridge Electric Department reported about midnight Thursday, roughly six hours after violent storms roared through East Tennessee, causing widespread damage and power outages, and trapping visitors in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

In Oak Ridge, the city staff reported outages in Rarity Ridge and on Berwick Drive, Bear Creek and Berea roads, Warwick and Hoyt lanes, and Andover, Iris, and East Wadsworth circles.

Residents reported outages in other locations from West Outer Drive and Montana Avenue to Grove Center and Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Officials in the Oak Ridge Electric Department said they didn’t know how many customers lost power Thursday.

But a few hours after the storm, by 10:30 p.m., the Electric Department reported that only a few scattered small outages remained, and most, if not all of those, were due to fallen trees or branches.

Woodland Storm Damage

Oak Ridge Electric Department crews had to remove a tree limb that had fallen into power lines on South Purdue Avenue.

In Woodland around midnight, a three-man crew cut down a Bradford Pear tree limb that had fallen into a power line on South Purdue Avenue. Crew members had been working non-stop since about 6 p.m., when the ferocious storms blew south from the Ohio River Valley, bringing 70-mph winds and knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers in East Tennessee.

The city provided updates during the storm on Twitter. That Twitter feed is available at https://twitter.com/#!/corelectricdept.

Meanwhile, officials at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park confirmed that two people died during the storms.