At the height of Thursday’s lunch-hour traffic, Green Street was shut down in both directions due to downed utility lines.

A spokeswoman for Hall County dispatch said someone had been moving a trailer carrying a mobile home down Green Street, near the post office. The top of the mobile home snagged utility lines and pulled them down.

Gainesville police Lt. Brian Kelly said the incident happened shortly after noon, not far from the Ridgewood intersection. "(The trailer) snapped a telephone pole," he said.

Traffic was routed around to Candler Street. By about 1:30 p.m., some of Green Street’s lanes were reopened and congestion was beginning to ease.

Carol Boatright, spokeswoman for Georgia Power, said crews were called in to inspect the damage, but no major power outages were reported as a result of the accident.

She said the mobile home did not hit the electrical lines, which are higher up. "The lower lines are usually telecommunications lines such as phone and cable TV," she said. "However, we may have to reroute some of our lines in order for them to make repairs."

Skip James, spokesman for Charter Communications, said about 800 customers on the north side of Gainesville lost their cable TV service.

This is not the first time that an oversized vehicle has knocked down utility lines on Green Street, which is narrow and heavily traveled. Kelly said there’s no way to prevent this type of incident.

"We can’t control the size of the vehicles on Green Street because it’s a state route," he said.