FAYETTEVILLE — More than two dozen University of Arkansas buildings lost power for about an hour Thursday.
Steve Voorhies, media relations manager, said a construction crew working at the intersection of Dickson Street and Harmon Avenue accidentally cut an underground power line that serves 25 buildings across campus. The accident happened about 11:30 a.m.
“This is what we would consider a minor inconvenience,” Voorhies said.
A crew from university facilities management bypassed the broken line and restored power to several of the nearest buildings by about 12:15 p.m., according to a news release. Full power was restored to all buildings at 12:45 p.m.
Of the 25 buildings that lost power, 20 had emergency backup generators and were able to continue basic operations, the release said.
The buildings affected by the outage were the Harmon Avenue parking garage, the Mechanical Engineering building, J.B. Hunt Hall, Willard J. Walker Hall, Kimpel Hall, Founders Hall, Gibson Hall, the Gibson Hall Annex, Gregson Hall, Brough Commons, Epley Hall, the Fine Arts Center, the Music building, the Administration building, Silas Hunt Hall, the Pat Walker Health Center, Holcombe Hall, Futrall Hall, the Garland Center, Davis Hall, University House, the Broyles Center, the Bev Lewis Center, the HPER building and the John McDonnell Field.
Buildings without backup generators included Gibson Hall Annex, the Fine Arts Center, Epley Band Hall, Silas Hunt Hall and John McDonnell Field.
The damaged cable will be repaired by university personnel working with specialists in high voltage cable.
Last month, students evacuated nine university buildings after a construction crew cut an underground gas line on Dickson Street near the Hillside Auditorium.