Having successfully helped to restore power to two North Carolina barrier islands, PCL Civil Constructors now faces the fallout from a July 27 construction incident that forced a week-long evacuation of 60,000 visitors, putting a potential multimillion-dollar dent in the region’s tourism-dependent economy.

At least two class-action lawsuits have been filed against the Denver-based contractor and its affiliated companies by local businesses, rental property owners and individuals seeking compensation for losses sustained after a steel casing was driven into a buried, three-cable 115kV power transmission line at the site of the new Bonner Bridge across Oregon Inlet.

在旅游季节的顶峰时，这场破坏使哈特拉斯和奥克拉科克群岛处于黑暗中，迫使非居民立即撤离。达雷县官员的初步估计每天将经济损失带到哈特拉斯岛，每天约200万美元。

在美国北卡罗来纳州东部地区法院提起的一项诉讼指控PCL牺牲安全性节省成本，因为他们没有遵循“适当的风险管理惯例”来保护传输线免受损害。

根据法院申请，该项目团队的“成本削减措施是对诉讼原告和班级成员的经济利益，企业和财产的故意，肆意和鲁ck的漠不关心”。

该输电线于2015年12月搬迁于2015年12月，在这项2.46亿美元的桥梁项目之前，该输电线被埋葬在地下7至9英尺的地下，在附属于现有桥梁的海边管道和哈特拉斯北端的一系列立管。

According to the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation, the casing struck the cable as it was being placed for temporary storage during a routine pre-dawn cleanup operation.

NCDOT还确认，在项目计划中指出了由Hatteras电气合作社（CHEC）拥有的传输线的新位置。但是，目前尚不清楚是否有任何相应的表面标记。

Robert Harris, transmission and distribution engineer for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, says that while some type of marker is usually used to identify the location of underground power lines in construction areas, “the type and distance can vary.”

Excavation revealed that one of the transmission cables was completely severed, with a second sufficiently compromised to require repair. The third cable was undamaged.

高地下水位减慢了电源恢复工作

由于该地点的高地下水位放慢了安全访问和重新填充损坏的电缆的努力，因此CHEC启动了在桥梁和现有的立管之间建造9跨的架空传输线。破坏发生一周后的8月3日，新线经过了充分的测试和通电。允许游客第二天返回。

A CHEC spokesperson says the overhead line will remain in place at least until the new bridge is completed, currently scheduled for 2019.

恢复权力后，PCL通过社交媒体宣布，它正在“努力为受影响的人提供帮助”，并发布了一份可下载的索赔表，申请人可以向基于亚特兰大的索赔管理提供商Crawford＆Co。提交。

律师哈珀赫克曼,椅子的建设law practice at Nexsen Pruet, Greensboro, N.C., expects PCL’s general liability insurance will cover what likely will be a significant volume of claims, ranging from spoiled food and forfeited vacation rental deposits to business-interruption losses.

PCL’s potential liability could have been far more substantial had the outage lasted several weeks, as originally feared, Heckman says, adding, “This will be a smaller-scale version of … the Deepwater Horizon spill … [which] affected tourism businesses along the Gulf Coast.”

根据美国内政部的说法，在2010年活动之后，BP向餐厅和酒店业的索赔人支付了超过13亿美元的赔偿金。