John, I've watched this underground wires discussion for a while. Let me add my personal experiences. As a child growing up, the wires were overhead from a utility pole at the back of the lot. Lightening struck the pole/transformer one morning and the power and phone went out. The outages were rare. Now in my current neighborhood (25+ years) we have underground wires. The power outages are more frequent and longer because there are overhead wires somewhere in the system. The real killer was the underground transformer some 250 feet away. One morning I was in the basement working on the Apple IIc when I saw a flash and heard a boom. The power disappeared and the surge got the new TV in the bedroom. Not good! No overhead wires is desirable from an ascetic point of view, but still problematic. Regards, Bob S.
On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 9:35 AM, John Sessoms <[email protected]> wrote: >> On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 7:15 PM, Joseph McAllister <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> >>> On Aug 30, 2011, at 14:31 , Charles Robinson wrote: >>> >>>> On Aug 30, 2011, at 16:14, John Sessoms wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Put the utilities underground where they belong and you don't got to >>>>> worry about trees falling over on them. >> >> <snip> >> >> <major rant> >> >> <snip> >>> >>> DOWN WITH THE WIRES, AMERICA!!! ?(and everywhere else) (think what a >>> bounty of jobs that would become available if the go'mint formed a DWW whose >>> goal was to transition overheads to buried, ojne street at a time. Tell your >>> representatives, local, state, and federal about this plan. Improve the >>> economy with me! >> >> Yeah, you're mostly right, but there's a down-side to putting >> everything underground: Every time there's a problem holes have to be >> dug at great cost of money and time, along with all the disruptions >> that causes. Once the fix has been made and everything filled in and >> patched up, the pavement is always uneven and bumpy. >> >> Real bumpy. >> >> Dangerously bumpy to cyclists. >> >> And after a winter or two those patches begin to disintegrate into >> huge (and even more dangerous) potholes. >> >> And that's only repairs, Over the past decade or so private concerns >> (read: cell phone and cable companies) have been installing fibre >> optics under our streets with the expected bumpy roads left behind. >> >> Some streets are un-ride-able to the point that I avoid them >> altogether - that's if I can find a passable street nearby. >> >> While I generally agree with you, John, there is another side to the >> story. >> >> cheers, >> frank >> > > There's pros & cons on both sides. Utilities underground cost more to > repair, but don't cause major power outages every time the wind blows. > > Around here they don't dig up the street to install fiber optics. They use > some kind of horizontal drill rig that tunnels under the road. > > http://img.directindustry.com/images_di/photo-m2/horizontal-directional-drilling-rig-523688.jpg > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
