Crown Castle ‘Negligently’ Damaged Chula Vista Power Cable: Utility

San Diego Gas & Electric sustained nearly $66,000 in damages in December 2019 to an underground primary electric cable at a site in Chula Vista, Calif., from excavation work that was performed “negligently, carelessly and recklessly” by defendants Crown Castle and Kleven Construction, alleged the utility in a Dec. 7 complaint (docket 37-2022-00049007) in California Superior Court in San Diego County. The utility immediately billed the defendants for the damages, but they “failed and continue to fail to pay the sum due,” said the complaint. Crown Castle and Kleven ignored the utility’s surface markings to indicate the approximate location of the cable, and flouted Section 4216 of the California code that required them to excavate the site with caution, using only hand tools, to determine the exact location of the “subsurface installation,” instead performing excavation work “outside of the delineated area,” it said. The defendants “acted willfully and maliciously and in conscious disregard of the rights and safety of others by excavating with power equipment” adjacent to, above or near to a known active power cable, it alleged. Crown Castle declined comment Monday. Kleven didn’t comment.