Downed electric line leads to temporary closure of Highway 63 in Columbia
Matthew Sanders
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Highway 63 reopened north of Grindstone Parkway in Columbia after being closed for about an hour after a power line broke Wednesday.
The Columbia Fire Department said at about 3:30 p.m. that both sides of the highway — northbound and southbound — would be closed for about an hour. That followed single lane closures earlier as electric and fire crews responded to the scene.
Emergency dispatchers said in a public alert just before 5 p.m. that all lanes had reopened.
Boone County dispatchers sent a public alert a little after 1:30 p.m. saying electric lines were down in the area of Highway 63 and Grindstone Parkway. The alert urged drivers to avoid the area.
A subsequent alert said the lines were down on Highway 63 north of Grindstone. One lane of northbound Highway 63 was closed.
The Columbia Water and Light outage map showed 773 customers without power in one outage along Highway 63 near Grindstone. The outage has also affected traffic signals in the area.
Columbia Water and Light spokesman Matt Nestor said a line was down on Highway 63, and the large outage was caused by Water and Light crews shutting off a substation to make repairs.
The utlities said in a social media post that most customers had their power restored by about 4:45 p.m.
Check back for updates to this developing story.