Main Street Accident Involving Utility Pole Results in Traffic Jam, Power Outage
By Julie Perine on January 11, 2019 via Connect-Bridgeport.com
An East Main Street accident has traffic moving very slowly and has left some downtown businesses without power.
At 2:24 p.m. a motorist struck a utility pole in front of Main Street Fitness near the intersection of Davis Street,, completely snapping the pole at the base and leaving it tangled in utility lines. The driver of the vehicle did not stop after running the pole.
Bridgeport police and fire personnel are still on the scene. It will be sometime before power is restored in the area. Main Street - between Center and Third streets - is closed to traffic.
Some motorists have been rerouted up Center Street, but is moving slowly. Motorists are asked to avoid Main Street.
Several downtown businesses and other customers are without power.
UPDATE: As of 6:30 p.m., both lanes remained closed and traffic was being routed up Center Street and across Philadelphia Avenue, still moving very slowly.
Chad Nicholson, line supervisor with Mon Power, said he estimates the power company’s work will be done around 8:30 p.m. and at least one lane should be open by then, but there will still be more utility work to do.
“We have seven or eight guys out here right now and the state has some guys. The telephone and cable companies will have to move in here and get their lines attached to the pole before we can completely free up traffic again,” he said.
The impact from the accident completely snapped the pole.
“We basically had to replace everything and that’s been hard to deal with here as we are dealing with concrete and utilities under the ground,” Nicholson said. “We’re fortunate enough that they let us shut down the street. We know that’s been rough on everybody else, but we really couldn’t work this without having both lanes shut down.”
Though work is ongoing, power has been restored to most customers, he said.
“We were able to sectionalize. We started out with almost 1100 customers without power and were able to cut jumper, pick up pieces and isolate this section. We’ve done pretty good and (as of 6:30 p.m.) we now have between 30 and 50 customers without power.”
Some downtown businesses reported that their power was restored around 5 p.m.
The Bridgeport Police officers investigating the accident were not available for comment, but Assistant Police Chief Randy Hartley said there are some leads in the case.
"They do have a person of interest," he said. "The investigation is continuing and the patrol division is following up on leads."
In addition to damage to utilities, there was some damage to the exterior of Winnie's Juice Bar, next to Main Street Fitness, and still under construction. More information will be provided as it becomes available. 
