Ocracoke transmission cable ready for final splicing

Ocracoke will be on generator service beginning 11:59 pm on Tuesday, March 17 while crews splice the new submarine transmission cable extension on the south end of Hatteras Island. Tideland is confident that the generator will be able to handle the load for the entire island from late Tuesday night until Wednesday evening when splicing should be complete. Nevertheless, Ocracoke members are encouraged to conserve where possible while the island is on generator.

When splicing begins Tuesday night, telephone and data services will also be down on the island. Crews will splice the fiber optic line first and we anticipate restoration of telephone and data services by 7:00 am, Wednesday, March 18.

Thanks to favorable weather conditions, the cabling project has steadily progressed since the cable arrived in Hatteras on January 17. The new 10,800 feet of submarine cable will replace the current overhead lines that were increasingly being impacted by erosion on the south end of Hatteras Island. The new cable will be spliced into the existing 20,450 feet submarine cable that crosses Hatteras Inlet. Cable installation began the first week of February.