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Why are these local power lines up in the air on such low poles? Shouldn't they be buried when in an urban environment? I've only ever seen power lines up in th
by chrisseaton 5y ago
Why are these local power lines up in the air on such low poles? Shouldn't they be buried when in an urban environment? I've only ever seen power lines up in the air when crossing open country, and then 50m or so up in the air.
- jdavis703 5y agoThis is fairly common across the US (based on your use of the metric system I’m guessing you’re not familiar with US cities.) About the only areas with buried lines are high-density urban neighborhoods and wealthy suburbs.
- barsonme 5y agoSome places on the coasts bury them as well. My wife grew up on the coast and it wasn’t uncommon to go a few days or more without power each year because wind storms would knock over trees onto the power lines. They’ve since buried a lot of their lines.
- adventured 5y agoIt's not unusual for rural and suburban neighborhoods built since the 1970s to bury their powerlines. Even in nowhere Appalachia where I grew up that was very normal.
- mcast 5y agoMany of them in Florida on the east coast are also buried to lessen hurricane damage to infrastructure, but of course the main arteries coming from the power plants are always above ground.
- koheripbal 5y agoEven most wealthy suburbs have them above ground. It is just way cheaper to install, insulate, and maintain.
- thirtyseven 5y agoMy understanding is that it's only economical to bury utility lines when there is frequent enough inclement weather to bring them down, which definitely isn't the case in San Jose.
- beerandt 5y agoEven then it's not worth it, unless there's some unique risk or liability they're worried about, like near airports. Retrofits in urban areas are especially expensive, because any good contractor knows there's gonna be unknown problems once you start digging. Most places that have underground electric in the US have it either because it's mandated by local code or because the original developer was willing to pay for it. Hypothetically, enough bad weather would make burying it economical, but I've never heard of any particular instance where that was the case.
- chrisseaton 5y agoI wonder why it's routinely buried in the UK - we're a lot poorer, don't have extreme weather, and retrofits must have been far more complex here.
- x0x0 5y agoI suspect this is a big component: uk population density: 281/km2; us population density:36/km2. Obviously not a perfect comparison because density is highly variable, but the US is just so so much more spread out than european countries.
- chrisseaton 5y agoIsn't this San Jose? Eastern end of Silicon Valley, population density in the thousands, and home of the super-rich?
- dboreham 5y agoElectrical distribution plant generally follows the same code everywhere in the country. Also when SJ was first electrified it was a rural area.
- c54 5y agoThe California Bay Area is earthquake prone, so leaving power lines exposed and above ground is pretty common. You'll see similar in Japan as well.
- 8ytecoder 5y agoThat goes against my intuition. Everything standing about the ground is bound to have things fall over it in an earthquake. Power lines could be much safer under the ground. From a friend of mine who was trying hard to get the “unsightly” utility poles buried underground - it was just a lack of interest and funds. Just not a priority here. Almost all new neighborhoods have utility lines buried.
- fwip 5y agoPerhaps it's safer underground, but repair is also more expensive.
- rini17 5y agoEarthquake or flood so severe that it damages underground power line, damages water and sewer pipes even sooner. So in that case digging must be done anyway.
- dredmorbius 5y agoI don't know what the power-grid considerations are, but much of the SF Bay Area is on fill or other unstable ground which is subject to liquifaction and severe movement in seismic events. Undergrouding local transmission might increase overall risks of outages / cost of repair.
- JimTheMan 5y agoTo add to the other commenters, above ground local powerlines are the default around the world. They cool easily and are easy to build/fix/maintain. I am curious as to where you live where underground is the norm? I wonder if they build them differently than elsewhere..?
- DasIch 5y agoIn Germany the powerlines are always below ground except for high voltage. I’m pretty sure this is also the case for most of Western Europe.
- htns 5y agoI'd guess anywhere snow can build up on roofs will have the lines buried.
- rini17 5y agoIn Slovakia all new construction must have underground power lines. Not only that, hanging anything in the air (like fiber) across the street in all residential areas is banned. But only few decades ago it was common and there are still active 240/400 volt power poles everywhere. The major reason is probably winter icing.
- jcrawfordor 5y agoAbove-ground pole infrastructure is considered an eyesore by a lot of municipalities, so it's common to require that new subdivisions bury everything for some decades now.
- dghughes 5y agoHere in my area of Canada it's very rare to have underground electrical power lines. So rare that there was a study using a small town (in New Brunswick?) to research the cost, maintenance, durability of doing so. That was back in the 70s or 80s. It was a unique situation that didn't seem to catch on probably due to the cost.
- Reason077 5y ago> "Why are these local power lines up in the air on such low poles?" Power lines suspended on poles are common throughout North American and Asian countries in my experience, even in urban areas. Burying power lines by default in towns and cities seems to be a more UK/European thing.