O7/30/96

Contact: Sherwood Wilson 593-2932

ATHENS, Ohio -- Electrical power to about 60 percent of the Ohio University campus was cut between noon and 2:30 p.m. Friday to power lines damaged when contractors on a city sewer project inadvertently undermined a concrete duct and potentially damaged both primary and backup campus electrical systems, according to Ohio University Facilities Management Director Sherwood Wilson.

The morning accident, which occurred near the old CSX railway right-of-way and Station Street, affected the portion of campus roughly north of the old rail bed, including the College Green.

Wilson said the potential existed for a catastrophic power failure which would have required an outage lasting several days instead of a few hours.

"We opted to have a controlled outage now and address the problem," Wilson said. "It was beyond our control, but we apologize for the inconvenience."