A fiber-optic line was damaged by a construction vehicle.

Some 13,000 Charter Spectrum internet and television customers in the Erie area are without service Tuesday night.

Bill Morand, director of communications for the Great Lakes Region of Charter Communications, said Spectrum technical personnel told him they expected service restoration Tuesday night.

The outage occurred early Tuesday afternoon when a construction vehicle working on Behrend College Drive, which runs through the Penn State Behrend campus in Harborcreek Township, snagged a fiber-optic line, Morand said.

Moran said the fiber-optic line was pulled, but not cut.

Morand said repairing optical fiber line takes more time than repairing a standard copper line. He compared the task to breaking strands of spaghetti and then attempting to reattach each piece.

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