As Bret Larsen glanced at the screen displaying photos of the mangled underground cables, he noted, “It’s not a pretty sight.”
Melinda White added, “It’s a major catastrophe that happened in our network.”
On Wednesday night, the two Frontier Communications executives addressed a crowd of about 100 Redmond residents and business owners about what happened at 9:30 a.m. last Saturday and what the plan of action is to repair the unpleasant situation.
An IMCO General Construction crew working on the Redmond Way Stormwater Treatment Facility project on Saturday cut through fiber and copper cables and disrupted Frontier’s FiOS and copper services for phone, television and hi-speed Internet, as well as some 911 services.
The crew caused the outage at 15802 Bear Creek Parkway at the corner of Bear Creek Parkway and Redmond Way, affecting about 6,000 residential and business customers.
“The contractor was excavating a trench and installing a storm drainpipe — it was a mistake, the contractor hit cables,” said Linda De Boldt, City of Redmond Public Works director, as the crowd listened at the meeting that took place in the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center auditorium. She said the outage is under investigation.
Seconds before De Boldt took the microphone, Redmond resident Norman L. Wherrett Jr. shook his head and asked aloud, “Where’s the mayor?” De Boldt noted that she was representing the city at the meeting and would supply information.
De Boldt said the city is working closely with Frontier to restore all services as soon as possible.
Frontier repair crews restored 911 services by 7 a.m. on Sunday. As of Wednesday afternoon, Frontier’s Vicky Oxley said that 100 percent of FiOS services had been restored, but not all of their copper services. Frontier began working on restoring FiOS and copper services simultaneously on Saturday morning and Oxley said the copper mending could last into the weekend.
“Frontier Communications continues to work diligently to restore services in the Redmond area,” Oxley said. “Frontier understands the importance of staying connected. We appreciate our customers’ patience as we work around the clock to restore services to the Redmond community.”
Businesses are taking the brunt of the outage as evidenced by the owners getting emotional while speaking at the meeting and commenting on the Redmond Reporter‘s website this week.
One attendee said his hair salon business in the Bear Creek Shopping Center has been affected, prompting White to inform the man that Frontier would switch his services from copper to FiOS free of charge. About 30 other businesses were given the same treatment to get them up and running when those owners attended the question-and-answer session at the community center on Wednesday afternoon.
Oxley said that Frontier will also be proactively issuing bill credits for the days customers go without service.
Paul Spears, owner of the Union 76 station in the 16900 block of Redmond Way, said his income took a hit with the outage. He estimated that 90 percent of his customers pay with credit cards, including 80 percent who pay for their gas at the pump.
“It shut us down,” said Spears, who switched from copper to FiOS on Wednesday evening to get his business going again. “I hope the city steps up and does something because it’s been a big hassle for businesses.”
De Boldt said that the city, Frontier and the contractor will discuss the claims process for businesses’ lost revenues because of the outage. She added that they will stand by all the businesses during that process.
One Redmond businesswoman couldn’t wait for Frontier, so she went elsewhere for services.
According to Jim Becker, the outage affected his daughter Shana Becker’s coffee stand, Cascade Grind in the 8000 block of 161st Avenue Northeast, and she had been turning away business since she couldn’t accept credit cards with the terminal down.
“(On Tuesday) after contacting Frontier and again getting no ETA on the fix from them, out of necessity we changed her service over to Verizon LTE and she is back in business now,” Jim said.
One reader wrote on the Reporter website comments section that she couldn’t operate her business without the service she pays for. Another reader noted that her business uses the copper for phones and it’s been difficult managing 15 employees operating at half capacity.
At the meeting, White said Frontier is sorry for the inconvenience for customers and they are getting copper services back up in chunks of 200-400 users at a time. As of Wednesday, White said about 1,500 customers were still affected.
The damage was so extensive to the thousands of feet of cable that Frontier crews will have to rebuild the system.
“Frontier is footing the bill to get this fixed up. It’s our top priority,” said White, adding that they’re continuously checking in with workers in the manholes and engineering officials for updates. She didn’t give an estimated cost of the work completed and to be done.
For businesses and residents who reside in copper-wired areas, Frontier has deployed a Wi-Fi network in downtown Redmond along the corridor between 161st Avenue Northeast to 166th Avenue Northeast and Redmond Way to Cleveland Street.
For updates, customers can visit www.frontier.com or call (800) 922-1492 to reach a local member of Frontier’s Customer Care Team.
As for construction on the city’s Redmond Way Stormwater Treatment Facility project, the work previously scheduled for Sept. 26-29 will be rescheduled, according to Anne Marie Peacock, communications specialist for the city.
De Boldt said IMCO General Construction, which is headquartered in Ferndale, will still be in charge of the project and its crew will be closely monitored.
“We are deeply sorry for the interruptions in service and the inconvenience this has caused,” reads a note on IMCO’s website. “Our crews are supporting Frontier any way we can in order to get services back online.”
