BLYTHEWOOD – Richland County’s Penny Tax funded road construction along Blythewood Road has been paused for some time to allow AT&T time to move phone pedestals (4” x 4” grey or green metal posts) sticking up along the roadside to locations beyond the planned wider pavement, according to Michael Maloney, interim director for the Richland County Transportation Penny Tax project. He says construction is set to resume in another couple of weeks.
In a phone conversation with The Voice on Tuesday, Maloney said that while the big equipment part of construction has been paused, work has still been going on.
“But you’re only going to see a man or maybe a pickup truck out there,” he said, “not big equipment.”
He explained that all AT&T’s fiber optic cable along the road has to be disconnected from the old pedestals, which are being removed and re-connected to new ones.
“They’re splitting fiber optic cable and each cable has 385 fibers. Each and every one of these needs splitting,” he said. “That takes time.”
He said AT&T should finish up this week.
“Cherokee Construction will then mobilize and be back on the road work,” Maloney said.
