SBC replacing campus phone lines

The large yellow tents, trucks and machinery that have lined 10th street for the last few weeks have caught the eye of passers-by and increased their curiosity as to what work is being done. \nSouthern Bell Company workers are splicing nearly 5,000 underground cable lines and replacing them with new ones. During the repairs, phone service will only be affected for about three seconds.\n"The work is being done as part of an ongoing maintenance project all over the state," said Mike Marker, an Indiana SBC Communications, Inc. spokesman. "The idea that the damage has to do with deterioration caused by steam damage is speculation but is a possible reason."\nBelow the tents are manholes with thousands of phone cables waiting to be repaired and changed. The manholes are huge pits of colored cables, tools and devices the workers need, and the trucks and machines provide the means and conditions necessary to get the work done. \n"Setting up this project is probably the hardest," cable splicer David Myers said. "It takes about three full days to set up each manhole for work to be done and to create ideal working conditions. We need to maintain the right amount of pressure and clean oxygen inside the manholes for things to work."\nThe work, which began in January, will take a few more weeks to be completed.\n"The lines affected run from Unionville to eastern Bloomington," cable splicer Kent Lawson said. "Each cable, if digital, can hold up to 300 lines, although most typically hold about 96."\nSBC repairmen are working around the clock as efficiently and fast as possible. \n"There are people working on this project 24 hours a day," Lawson said. "There are about 12 people working on this specific project in teams, but there is always someone here."\nThe workers said the process for splicing old cables and replacing them with new ones is complicated.\n"First, we have to identify each line, which is two wires which happen to not be color-coded," Lawson said. "Then we have to send a tone out to validate that all of us are working on the right line and that we are okayed to switch the lines over."\nAlthough most of the work is done beneath the surface, the tents on 10th Street still affect students. \n"Getting around 10th Street can be a little difficult with those tents," sophomore Jennifer Hurtubise said. "I have class in the geology building, so I have to go over there all the time. When it's really crowded during those peak times, it's hard for the buses to get around."\nLawson said the repairs are not supposed to cause any significant phone disruption to the area. \n"If we do our job correctly, the students won't have anything to worry about."\n-- Contact staff writer Mallory Simon at mgsimon@indiana.edu.