Verizon: Two-thirds of lines restored at 140 West Street

Verizon Communications reported this afternoon it has successfully restored two-thirds of the voice lines served by its central office at 140 West Street, which is at ground zero of the tragedy in New York City.

The CO suffered heavy damage when the adjacent 7 World Trade Center and the twin towers--located directly across the street--collapsed. The switching center serves 200,000 access lines for residences and small businesses and 100,000 lines for large businesses. About 200,000 of those lines have been restored or redirected to new numbers.

"Our people are focused on helping New York get back on its feet as fast as humanly possible," said Larry Babbio, Verizon vice chairman and president of the company's telecom group, in a statement.

Previously, Verizon rerouted about 2 million of the 3.5 million circuits served by the facility's data center. It now faces a daunting cleanup and rebuilding effort at 140 West Street, one made more difficult by the fact workers are not yet able to access all areas of the building. They also have been prevented from working in some parts of the underground cable vault, making it "virtually impossible" for the company to assess damage to the cables that serve Lower Manhattan.

At this point, the RBOC can only guess how many of its customers are facing service issues, as many of those customers still have not been allowed to return to their homes and businesses in the affected area--another factor hampering the overall restoration effort, said the company.

--Glenn Bischoff, senior writer