CRANE BOOM SNAPS POWER LINE, CLOSING WILLIAM

The lights flickered momentarily in parts of Cape Girardeau just before noon Tuesday when a steel boom of a pile-driving crane working near South Kingshighway and William fell onto a Union Electric 115.5-kilovolt subtransmission line.

Both lanes of William Street at the corner of William and Kingshighway were closed to traffic for about three hours as workmen repaired the downed lines.

Union Electric Co. spokesman A.D. Cox said the transmission line feeds directly from UE's Viaduct Court distribution center to the Clark Street substation at North Clark and Dunklin.

Cox said, "As soon as the crane dropped onto the lines, circuit breakers at each end of the line -- at the Viaduct center and the Clark Street substation -- opened up and de-energized the line.

"Because the Clark Street substation is also fed from our Wedekind Substation (at Highway 61 near I-55 between Cape Girardeau and Jackson), there was only a momentary loss of power, about one second, when safety relays at the Clark Street substation opened momentarily to protect the station's transformers and keep the power on."

Cox said he was told the operator of the crane had shut it down and was getting out when he accidentally hit one of the controls causing the boom to fall onto the power line.