Almost a full week after strong winds knocked down trees, branches, utility lines and a utility pole on Atlas Road just east of Brier, the roadway remained closed with no clear answer as to when it might be opened.
Atlas Road snakes through a wooded residential community southwest of the 228th Street Southwest and 23rd Place West intersection in Brier, but the road has been officially closed to vehicular traffic since 1 a.m. on Nov. 18. After strong winds snapped at least two trees and dropped them onto the roadway, crews removed the fallen debris, pushed what remains of a broken utility pole to the side of the road and rehung most of the utility lines that had been brought down. But the roadway remained closed due to a couple of lines that still hung low enough to prevent all vehicles from passing underneath safely.
The utility lines in question are believed to be telecommunication lines owned by Verizon, but the company couldn’t confirm that Monday night.
“Most of our cell towers are connected by lines underground,” said Heidi Flato, Verizon Wireless media spokesperson, “but some of our lines do run with other utility lines overhead.”
Snohomish County PUD spokesman Neil Neroutsos said that the utility line preventing Atlas Road from opening belongs to Verizon. “We cleared our issue last Wednesday,” Neroutsos said of the fallen Snohomish County PUD lines and pole on the roadway.
Atlas Road sits just outside the Brier city limits in unincorporated Snohomish County, making it the responsibility of the Road Maintenance division of Snohomish County Public Works. A spokesperson of the Road Maintenance division didn’t know when the roadway would be ready to be opened again, referring only to a website that updates road closure information throughout the county.
You can keep updated on the status of Atlas Road here.
Most likely Frontier power lines, not Verizon. Frontier purchased all of the wireline (not cell) assets of Verizon in our area back in 2012.
Atlas Road was reopened to all traffic on Tuesday, Nov. 24, after a crew from Frontier Communications cleared and rehung utility lines. Frontier has been acquiring wirelines from Verizon nationwide since 2009 in a number of cash and stock business deals. There has been no comment from the county as to who owned the lines that kept Atlas Road closed for six days.