Caveat; IANACE. I Am Not A Civil Engineer
It doesn’t matter whether it’s from a snow storm, a hurricane, a tornado or a massive rain storm with strong winds, no one should have to deal with a power outage because a tree fell on the power lines. Or whatever else may bring down a power line.
We have the technology. We know how to fix this. Bury them. Since the mid 80s I have lived in various developments, even in different states, where the internal power lines are buried. And more and more among newer developments, the roads leading up to these newer development don’t have power lines running parallel. So why aren’t the power lines buried everywhere?
We’ve all seen it or experienced power outages due to the ravages of mother nature. The lines of power company trucks heading down the interstate off to help some region that just experienced another natural disaster. Why do they keep putting them back up the same way?
Stupidity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the Northeast or the upper Midwest after a massive snow storm or the people living in tornado alley cleaning up after another tornado, or any of the coastal areas dealing with a hurricane, none of them need to be dealing with power outages from downed lines.
To be clear, I’m not talking about the high voltage lines (often away and above most of the trees). Nor am I talking about the occasional substation outage. Nope, I’m talking just about the power lines we all see, usually running parallel to our streets. Often times we even see a problem just waiting to happen, a limb or a tree just waiting for a strong breeze or storm softening up the ground so that root ball comes up and snaps that line.
Part of the answer is power companies don’t want to pay for the initial cost, but if I were sitting on a power company’s board, I would be asking about the 10 year projected cost of repairing lines versus the cost of burying them and dealing with a multitude less number of outages(lost revenue).
On the other hand, it could start with state legislatures requiring power companies to bury their lines. No grandfathering in existing lines.
One of the other benefits of burying them, is that once buried (with maybe a few exceptions), is when a road is widened etc., the road project won’t have to wait on the power company to move the power lines before road construction begins, saving weeks to months on the timeline of road construction.
Oh, and some may ask or point out that during these natural disasters the power should be turned off. That’s fine. That can be dealt with through programming and disaster protocols.