Reading the numerous numbers of power outages this past year from Tornadoes, Hurricanes, and now Nor'easterners, I wanted to see your thoughts about burying power lines. America is one of the few 1st world countries that uses power lines and poles for power ubiquitously. A conundrum given the number of national disasters we often face involving wind and falling objects that are much more than much of Europe, Australia, and even most of urbanized East Asia (save Japan). True underground power lines costs a lot of money especially in areas that are already developed. It also is much more difficult to fix problems when they occur. However, much fewer problems and power outages occur with underground power lines rather than above ground power lines. Tornadoes, Trees, Hail, Hurricanes, Wind, Snow, an idiot on a ladder, etc can all cause a power line to be snapped or a pole to fall down, causing power outages. True once the storm responsible has passed, they can typically be fixed quickly, but why put ourselves in a position to have to deal with that? Especially given how much current society relies on electricity and technology.
I don't really have an opinion either way but would be interested in seeing cost benefit analysis of underground versus overhead lines.
Right, but it would be good to see studies as to how often an underground cable gets cut vs. an overhead cable. If the cost is 5 times more but it occurs 7 times less, then it would appear to be a better long term investment to have underground cables.
I was involved in some cost/benefit analysis for large scale land planning in Houston in the 80's (The Woodlands, First Colony, Greatwood). We landscape architects were more concerned with aesthetics and since the increased cost per foot to go underground was more than a factor of 100, we mostly lost. I don't recall that hurricane threats played a great deal into the decisions. My dim memory is that a standard service power line cost then about $20 a lineal foot on poles and $200 a lineal foot under ground. And, in Houston, groundwater and water tables are always as much of a concern a anything. Anything four feet underground is like it's in a lake. So we don't have basements, subways and the underpasses are always wet.
Poles that are underground. Also with a railroad for mining cars to allow for thrilling chase sequences.
Power lines should be underground --> PERIOD. I'm sick of people posting this BS every few weeks in the D & D... PREPARE FOR THE FLAME WAR.
On a serious note, burying only works in cities with high density. New York City for example has buried power lines. However, burying power lines is much much more expensive than putting them on poles and for a city like Houston, it simply wouldn't be economical. You would end up burying miles of lines for a few houses at a time. You need dense populations, hence why certain large urbanized areas in Europe and Asia have them.
all of our power lines are underground up here and when we had the 24+" of snowfall in one day in Feb - didn't lose power for a single moment... underground lines are the t***.