San Francisco Public Works officials and PG&E are investigating whether recent sidewalk repair work in the city's Mission District weakened the roots of several ficus trees that fell Friday morning, causing a power outage that shut down the 16th and Mission BART Station for hours.
The seven trees toppled over on the south side of 16th Street — where Harrison Street and Treat Avenue come together — sometime after 3 a.m., pulling down power lines and poles. That knocked out power to 2,550 customers, PG&E spokeswoman Andrea Menniti said.
Most of those customers had their power restored within 45 minutes, Menniti said, but electricity was not restored to the BART station until around 7:15 a.m.
The trees fell during a storm that brought gusty winds and brief, heavy downpours to parts of the city overnight.
The sidewalk repair work was done within the past month, according to San Francisco Public Works spokeswoman Rachel Gordon.