Time to fix an FTTC cabinet flattened by a car...

At about 18:00 on Sunday 6th of November, there was a collision at a road junction in the town where I live (Charlbury), which not only was rather bad for the occupants of one of the cars, who was hospitalised, but also had the unfortunate side-effect of cutting about 140 homes off the Internet as a fibre cabinet was knocked off its foundations. Even more unfortunately for me, one of those properties was mine. The phone worked, but the router shone nothing but a gloomy orange at me. However, the phone still worked.

Having read about these things, and seen photos of the type of damage seen and the extended outage time, I feared the worst.

The box itself was taped off by Openreach the following day, power disconnected etc. The day after that a new FTTC cabinet (pre-populated) was driven to site but on winching off the old one it was found that some cables were severed, as were the optical fibres. This apparently necessitated cutting the tie cables and remaking all the joints (I saw the severed end when chatting to the engineers this morning, when they were about to start that work). My phone went off at this time.

At about 16:00 today (9th November), the blue light came back on and I was live again. It appears that around 40 homes remain to be reconnected.

So, for my part I lost BB service for about 70 hours, which I think in view of the damage involved, I think is a pretty good job by all concerned (which will have included the local electricity company who would have had to deal with the power issues).

In my case I only lost the phone service for about 6 hours, but for others it will have been three days.

Having read about this stuff, it was interesting to see how it was resolved, even if somewhat frustrating. Given the availability of a "spare" cabinet, then it points to a well defined process for dealing with such eventualities, and perhaps we were "lucky" in that the cabinet itself wasn't deemed to be in a particularly unsafe position (there were no lane closures and nothing much but a couple of warning signs). Of course, safety is a relative thing. The space the two OR engineers were occupying had been suddenly occupied by an errant 4WD vehicle less than three days before.

This is the thread on the local website

http://forum.charlbury.info/thread/4010

I'm grateful to be back online and for those that did the work. I'm slightly less grateful to the guy who apparently shot across the junction at speed (ignoring the give way sign) and caused this mayhem. Despite that, I hope he's not seriously hurt. Well, apart from his wallet.

Edited by deleted (Wed 09-Nov-16 18:40:33)

That's not that bad going, to think they could remove and install a new cabinet that quick )

What would they need to replace cable wise, I would of thought a new set of fibres from the nearest node or maybe they just spliced extra fibres to replace the damaged parts and then the copper between the cabinets.

Also would they need to of got planning permission, or isn't it required, I assume they closed off a lane while they did the work.

But that's still good going I think

This is why I am glad we are on FTTP, both of our PCP Cabinets that supplies our road is located on the A118 and going by the state of the railings that use to be there I am surprised no bodies hit ours.

Paul

No planning permission required, though a street works permit maybe needed

In reply to a post by witchunt:

No planning permission required, though a street works permit maybe needed

Seems so.

Date: 8 Nov 08:15 - 10 Nov
Location: (PCP3) OUTSIDE WYCHWOOD HOUSE, ENSTONE ROAD
Description: Excavation to expose and enable the removal of a damaged dslam cabinet
Permit status: Application
Current status: Work in progress

I think that's the cabinet.

Also the road was closed off:

Road closure at Charlbury, Market Street. For installation of underground ducking by Rebeck Communications.

Paul

The notice for work at Whychwood House is relevant, as that's where the cabinet is (at the junction of Nine Acres Lane and the B40220). It's on the opposite side of the road to the PCP, but not shown. I didn't see a lane closed, although presumably it was briefly when removing the old cabinet and winching in the new one. Otherwise it was just a tent over the new cabinet and a couple of OR engineers.

The closure for Market Street must be for something completely different as it's about half a kilometre away and there would be no reason install a new duct. There are a few small/medium businesses there. Perhaps for installation of a private circuit or the like.

However, the (electronic) paperwork reminds us there are probably dozens of different things that have to be co-ordinated to get this all to work.

nb. no point in looking on Google Streetview for the FTTC cabinet as the images predate the instllation.

Thanks for that description, giving a fair idea of what is involved.

In reply to a post by TheEulerID:

The notice for work at Whychwood House is relevant, as that's where the cabinet is (at the junction of Nine Acres Lane and the B40220). It's on the opposite side of the road to the PCP, but not shown. I didn't see a lane closed, although presumably it was briefly when removing the old cabinet and winching in the new one. Otherwise it was just a tent over the new cabinet and a couple of OR engineers.

The closure for Market Street must be for something completely different as it's about half a kilometre away and there would be no reason install a new duct. There are a few small/medium businesses there. Perhaps for installation of a private circuit or the like.

However, the (electronic) paperwork reminds us there are probably dozens of different things that have to be co-ordinated to get this all to work.

nb. no point in looking on Google Streetview for the FTTC cabinet as the images predate the instllation.

Yeah, roadworks say "Diversion route 5 Dec - 7 Dec" so yeah.

Roadworks also shows where about the cabinet will be placed.

Paul