Hawaiian Electric crews completed work on replacing damaged utility poles on Salt Lake Boulevard at approximately 11pm Tuesday. All electric service affected by this incident has been restored.
Police have reopened Salt Lake Boulevard.
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Residents next to Aloha Stadium woke up to a loud crash Tuesday morning as three utility poles fell down onto Salt Lake Boulevard.
The incident closed down the road to traffic in the area.
"Every body had to go this side come back this side and cars and buses go back and forth," Halawa resident Maria Arakaki said.
The poles came crashing down at about 4 a.m.
Initially, officials thought an accident may have been the cause, but that was not the case.
"We have done a preliminary assessment and nothing is final, but our assessment indicates a broken guide wire on one of the poles that is one the support wires that are attached to poles, it broke and that caused one pole to fall. When it came down, it pulled down the other two poles," Hawaiian Electric Company spokesperson Darren Pai said.
Initially, about 1,200 customers were without power. HECO crews were able to restore power to 800 customers within an hour.
"We rerouted the power through back up circuits. The system is designed with back up redundancies, so we can restore power to customers while workers make repairs," Pai said.
By the end of the Tuesday morning commute, the power had been completely restored, but the road closure had caused major traffic delays.
"At this time we have to replace all the poles along Salt Lake Boulevard and that will take most of the day into tonight," Pai said.
HECO says it will also be looking at the guide wires for the other poles that did not come down, examining them for any defects.
Police have closed Salt Lake Boulevard from Kamehameha Highway to Kalaloa Street.
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See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
