Fixing cables and pipes in Grindavík

HS Veitur employees have been working in Grindavík to repair electrical cables and hot water pipes that were severed in the earthquakes in the town.

Sigurður Sigmundsson and Sigurþór Sævarsson were repairing a 36-kilowatt electricity cable between the two incoming power hubs yesterday.

“They broke in the earthquakes,” says Sævarsson, showing a reporter cables that had burned and broke. “It takes some time to repair.”

It takes approximately one day to repair each end of the electrical cables, which are three in total. Their coworkers were simultaneously repairing 11 thousand voltage cables that had been severed elsewhere in town.

Afraid in one hole

They say they are not afraid to work in the town despite the fact that there is a critical level of civil protection in Grindavík.

They mention that, however, in another part of town, not far from the churchyard, they were in a three metre deep ditch. Cars drove by, which caused the edge of the ditch to collapse into the hole. “That’s maybe the only time you’ve felt like you were in danger.”

Sævarsson and Sigmundsson, who both live in Reykjanesbær town, expect a lot of work ahead of them, although it is difficult to say.

Electrical cables may be pulled or worn in the near future or even after a few years due to the earthquakes.

Fixing the hot water pipes

A journalist and a photographer from mbl.is also stopped by Efstahraun, where more employees of HS Veitur, including Nikolai Sófus Berthelsen, were working on repairing a heat supply pipe that had been disintegrating.

An excavator was responsible for mowing the soil away to make it possible to reach the pipe and the repair was successful.