3 ms·

poles are uncommon in residential areas here, everything is buried. and digging is expensive.

jessaustin 8y ago
It seems dumb that poles are uncommon in an area with little topsoil over a granite substrate? Why so fancy? Incidentally this could mean that the trailer parks are cheaper to serve than swankier neighborhoods; there are lots of poles in trailer parks.
- monocasa 8y ago
  It's Boulder, houses are getting close to California levels. The cheapest starter homes are around $700k.
  - sigstoat 8y ago
    there are at least 3 trailer parks in boulder, maybe more. i wonder how prices in them have changed over the years? :)
    - monocasa 8y ago
      A single wide is about $300k, but there's a five year waiting list.
  - sanderjd 8y ago
    FWIW, the market appears to have cooled down a bit this spring. It remains to be seen whether that's a blip or a trend.
- sigstoat 8y ago
  winter storms and strong winds. i've never lost power in the boulder area, except when a substation failed, regardless of the weather. when i lived in areas with overhead lines, power loss was a regular event, occurring during winds that would be considered mild in boulder.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    Regularly trimming trees around the power line seems less expensive than boring through granite? The frequency of storm-related outages is a good proxy for how much the power company is spending on vegetation removal.
    - monocasa 8y ago
      It's quite a battle as we also get gale force winds coming off of the mountains so often that it's not news, just a normal Tuesday.
    - msbarnett 8y ago
      > Regularly trimming trees around the power line seems less expensive than boring through granite? That's not going to do anything to stop ice from forming on the lines, which is a far bigger problem in the winter than tree falls.
    - gascan 8y ago
      The front range gets 100mph+ chinook winds, and late spring storms dump feet of heavy snow leading to what we affectionately call "treemageddon", during which town will be filled with the thunder of trees crashing down for hours and hours. It's not an ideal environment for lines on poles.
MAGZine 8y ago
at least in newer developments, my understanding is most underground channels (think sewers) generally provide some facility for running new lines/equipment in them, to reduce the number of times that city streets need to be dug up to lay x,y or z.

It seems dumb that poles are uncommon in an area with little topsoil over a granite substrate? Why so fancy? Incidentally this could mean that the trailer parks are cheaper to serve than swankier neighborhoods; there are lots of poles in trailer parks.

monocasa 8y ago
It's Boulder, houses are getting close to California levels. The cheapest starter homes are around $700k.
- sigstoat 8y ago
  there are at least 3 trailer parks in boulder, maybe more. i wonder how prices in them have changed over the years? :)
  - monocasa 8y ago
    A single wide is about $300k, but there's a five year waiting list.
- sanderjd 8y ago
  FWIW, the market appears to have cooled down a bit this spring. It remains to be seen whether that's a blip or a trend.
sigstoat 8y ago
winter storms and strong winds. i've never lost power in the boulder area, except when a substation failed, regardless of the weather. when i lived in areas with overhead lines, power loss was a regular event, occurring during winds that would be considered mild in boulder.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  Regularly trimming trees around the power line seems less expensive than boring through granite? The frequency of storm-related outages is a good proxy for how much the power company is spending on vegetation removal.
  - monocasa 8y ago
    It's quite a battle as we also get gale force winds coming off of the mountains so often that it's not news, just a normal Tuesday.
  - msbarnett 8y ago
    > Regularly trimming trees around the power line seems less expensive than boring through granite? That's not going to do anything to stop ice from forming on the lines, which is a far bigger problem in the winter than tree falls.
  - gascan 8y ago
    The front range gets 100mph+ chinook winds, and late spring storms dump feet of heavy snow leading to what we affectionately call "treemageddon", during which town will be filled with the thunder of trees crashing down for hours and hours. It's not an ideal environment for lines on poles.

MAGZine 8y ago

at least in newer developments, my understanding is most underground channels (think sewers) generally provide some facility for running new lines/equipment in them, to reduce the number of times that city streets need to be dug up to lay x,y or z.