[PA Engineer]

It really isn’t necessary to bury these lines in the older neighborhoods. There is a process using PVC pipe of the highest crfush resistence species and junction boxes, all laid on the ground rather than under it. There is even a raised sidewalk cover drawn up, to be used where sidewalks provide a substantial access to neighborhoods. I have wondered since I saw that system on the Internet why it isn’t in use in alot of tree lined areas. I suspect it has something to do with ‘handicap accessibility’ or some such federal rigamarol as that.

The cost is staggering. There is a general consensus amongst different power companies that place the cost of replacement to underground at about $50 per linear foot. There are pad mounted transformers and service runs from each. Also the underground real-estate is very expensive and has to be shared with gas, phone, cable, water and sewage. Even if the local distribution is buried, you still have may vulnerabilities with transmission. We just can't afford it now.

[patton]

In my AO, new services and service upgrades have to be buried, by code.

But the distribution circuits are all overhead - and you should see the legacy trees that wiped them out!

Great Falls at Cherry Hill Park has a HUGE oak right across the street, landed between two houses, fortunately. Some joker pinned a sign to it, “Free Firewood, You Haul.”

I laughed. It will take a crane to get it out, and I don’t own a chainsaw with an eight-foot bar.

Further down the road, there is a 35.4 kva circuit, two levels, suspended upside down over the street.

Man. Poles sheered off and flipped over.

[Marcella]

True story: Outside our subdivision, along side the road, telephone lines were buried. One day I got a call - from 911. The guy wanted to know what my emergency was. Said I didn’t have one, I didn’t call. He said yes I did. I said no I didn’t. He finally believed me.

Short time later, I get a call from 911. By that time my husband was home and he had called his adult daughter. 911 guy said to tell my husband to stop telling dirty jokes because it was being broadcast on speaker to everyone at 911 including the police dept. I was speechless.

The buried phone line had somehow mixed our phone with 911.

I was told not to use our phone until they called me. Immediately if not sooner, they were digging up that phone line to fix it.

Told my husband do NOT use the phone and clean up your jokes. He thought it was really funny and laughed and laughed.