About 46 traffic cameras have been knocked offline at streets and highways across Oahu and will likely stay that way for up to 30 days, city officials say, after they found two pipes containing fiber-optic cable severed and damaged Monday.
Copper thieves are believed responsible for the vandalism, although there was no copper to be stolen at the two sites, city Department of Transportation Services Director Mike Formby said Thursday.
The damage leaves city traffic operators unable to monitor in real time the conditions at dozens of major intersections and highway stretches across the island — including in Kaneohe, Aiea and Ewa Beach — and to adjust the timing of traffic signals there accordingly.
It also leaves drivers unable to view those same cameras via the city’s official website and GoAkamai.org — a collaboration between the city and the state — to gauge conditions before heading out on the road. Camera feeds along the H-1 freeway from Puuloa Road to the H-2 merge are down, as are feeds in Kaneohe along the Kamehameha and Kahekili highways.
The broken units are among 211 such traffic cameras on Oahu, Formby said. They are at two sites, under the Middle Street bridge at Kamehameha Highway and under the H-1 freeway near Middle Street.
All but two of the cameras knocked out were linked to the H-1 site, which is secured by the Department of Emergency Services with a 15-foot-tall barbed-wire fence, Formby said.
All 72 of the fiber-optic cables bundled inside the pipe there were damaged and will have to be replaced — eventually taking more cameras offline temporarily as workers complete the repairs, Formby said.
Initially 24 cameras went dark. However, when city workers were finally able to inspect the H-1 site Thursday, they inadvertently knocked 22 more offline because the cables were so badly damaged, Formby said.
Officials estimate the damage at $10,000, and they encourage anyone with information about the attempted theft to contact police.
They hope to have the camera feeds restored in the next 15 to 30 days. The department is considering steps to better protect its equipment, as it increasingly relies on the cameras to manage traffic around the island, Formby said.
