Eircom blames road project for cut phone services

EIRCOM last night blamed contractors working on a €2 million road project for cutting phone services to dozens of customers for almost two months.

But the company said it would not be taking legal action for the “severe” damage caused to its cables in the College Road area of Cork city.

Residents, who have been without a phone service since December 5, vented their fury over the situation yesterday.

One elderly lady said she was forced to buy a mobile phone to keep in touch with family and friends: “I’ve reported the fault to Eircom dozens of times but they just keep fobbing us off,” she said.

“I’ve had a phone for more than 50 years and not having one now is a real nuisance.”

Eircom laid the blame at the feet of contractors working on the College Road project.

The city council appointed contractors McGinty O’Shea to carry out the work. It began last year but workers apparently damaged several hundred metres of eircom cabling while digging in early December.

Eircom described the damage as severe and said their crews worked on repairs right up until Christmas Eve.

They rerouted cabling to restore services to parts of University College Cork and to banks. But five residential customers were still without service last night.

Eircom said it hoped to restore the service within the next day or so and those customers would not be charged for period they were without service.

It also confirmed it would not be taking legal action for the damage caused.

“We have had a number of meetings with the developer and they have given a commitment to work more closely with eircom going forward,” a spokesperson said.

The road works include the construction of pedestrian crossings at danger spots, wider footpaths, wider traffic lanes, raised speed tables to slow traffic, and a number of pedestrian priority zones along the road and around Gaol Walk.

Traffic light junctions will be installed and parking will be removed from certain areas, including from outside the Bons Secours hospital.

The boundary wall of UCC has been moved back in some areas to allow for road widening and bigger footpaths.

The works, which affect an area from the bottom of Magazine Road to the top of Donovan’s Road, will take almost a year to complete.