Smoke in River Market Caused by Failed Cable

Is it time to replace underground power lines around the Capitol City? The lights were out in the River Market for several hours last night. A defective underground cable nearly caught fire. Around 7:30 p.m. yesterday it was clear, something wasn't right below street level. Black smoke was puffing out of a manhole on Markham St. just outside of the Peabody hotel. Today crews say an aging cable overheated causing insulation around it to smoke and smolder. Several businesses lost power but Entergy says safeguards kept the problem from spreading. They also say the incident was completely isolated and accidents of this kind rarely occur. Still, they say with a network as old as the city itself, they're constantly looking for ways to stay ahead. "There are some new technologies available to help us look at our network connectors and we've started using a lot of that and it's helped us find things that in the past technology hadn't allowed us to find, said Allen East with Entergy. East also says they regularly schedule maintenance and replacement of their systems. But electrical systems aren't the only lines under our city streets. Water and sewer systems are also constantly in need of repair. Read more atarkansasmatters.com.

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