CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A majority of Independence Boulevard outbound lanes between Charlottetowne Avenue and Briar Creek Road were shut down for hours Friday due to power lines falling onto the road.
The intersection of Briar Creek and Independence boulevards is close to Bojangles Coliseum and the intersection of Charlottetowne Avenue and Independence Boulevard is northeast of Central Piedmont Community College's campus.
Charlotte Fire Department said there were significant delays in the area due to the closure and encouraged drivers to avoid the area before it reopened. It is unknown at this time what caused the power lines to fall.
According to Duke Energy, the power lines that came down were a primary line, which means the company had to take some additional customers offline in order to fix it. The power has since been restored, but at its height, at least 6,000 Duke customers were impacted by this power line damage.
To check the latest on outages, visit the Duke Energy outage map online.
It's been a rough day for power lines, as earlier on Friday, a section of Freedom Drive is closed in west Charlotte due to downed power lines, officials said. Multiple crews responded to a crash that knocked down a utility pole and power lines along Freedom Drive near Alleghany Street early Friday. Both directions of Freedom Drive are expected to be closed until after 2 p.m. while Duke Energy works to repair the utility pole and power lines.
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