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all wires should be buried. not only squirrels and other critters, but hurricanes and other acts of nature cause major problems. i know that most cities have st
by thrownaway954 7y ago
all wires should be buried. not only squirrels and other critters, but hurricanes and other acts of nature cause major problems. i know that most cities have started doing this for aesthetics than anything.
- legulere 7y agoHigh voltage cables still make more sense overground, because of higher costs and because they hardly fail.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoBut when they do, it's usually because of storms, trees, and...squirrels.
- bitbckt 7y agoUntil they do and burn down towns in Northern California...
- chrisseaton 7y agoBut they can ruin the beauty of our natural landscapes. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/15/national-grid-remove-electricity-pylons-protected-landscapes-improve-view https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/15/national-gri...
- legulere 7y agoYou need to keep the soil on top of underground cables free from trees and deep-rooting bushes, so it’s not necessarily better looking.
- TimTheTinker 7y agoI know distribution lines are routinely buried, but can transmission lines be buried?
- Scoundreller 7y agoIt doesn’t work too well unless you’re doing HVDC.
- js2 7y agoIt's really expensive, time consuming, and those wires are still susceptible to backhoes.
- darkpuma 7y agoIt's not just the upfront cost either, but once you bury the cables all future cable upgrades and replacements will be more expensive too. Burying cables nevertheless makes sense in some places, particularly dense areas. For areas with low population density (most of the land mass of the US for instance) it's totally cost prohibitive.
- AWildC182 7y agoI think the joke goes: What three things would you bring with you if you were stuck on a deserted island? A length of fiber, a shovel, and a margarita. Bury the fiber and drink the margarita while briefly waiting for a backhoe to come dig up the fiber.
- mcv 7y agoYou need to make sure backhoes know where the cables are. It works very well in Netherland. Except for high voltage long distance power, everything goes underground. Although in urban areas, I'd expect it to make more sense to have spacious tubes underground through which all the cables are easily pulled, so you don't have to dig everything up all the time. Maybe they already do that; I'm not sure.
- Scoundreller 7y agoDoes the Netherlands have a system for mandatory conduit sharing?
- mcv 7y agoI honestly have no idea. We might. There's very likely to be tons of regulation around it to make everything as safe and practical as possible for everybody.
- 7y ago
- coin 7y agoSee the part about gophers
- sigstoat 7y agothere are tradeoffs. digging holes and trenches is expensive.
- burfog 7y agoFlorida prefers to upgrade the poles to ones that hurricanes can't bother. Concrete is popular, with some poles being 2 feet thick. Ductile iron is becoming popular. Buried stuff is hard to fix and is at risk of flooding.