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Seeing the severity and extensive damage this recent ice storm has brought to the city of Toronto and others in Ontario, as well as few in the States, one can't help but ask such question:
Why can't our cable, like so many modern cities in the world, be buried underground so as to avoid damage by natural elements and the monetary destruction which cost so many so dearly, not to mention major inconvenience and grief? So, what is stopping us and the hydro companies to do so?
You do realize that each municipality issues it's own building codes stipulating how new developments are to be built?
Various communities will often lower those requirements and their subsequent costs to lure prospective developers to build new subdivisions to increase tax coffers.
It's not as simple as just pulling wire through the ground but you must also provide frost resistant vaults for major interconnects and when a fault does occur it can increase the time for resumption of service due to having to dig to get to it.
Province and Hydro providers often have little say in the matter if a county is willing to let a developer hang wires on poles to encourage him to build in their area.
The old Ontario Hydro monopoly was dismantled because we were flummoxed into the belief that they were not providing the best cost efficient product for the consumer at competitive prices which loosely translated means: "if we allow deregulation and private enterprise to enter the equation we can hopefully enhance our chances of a directorship should the day come we are not elected again or decide to retire and desire to top-up our government (taxpayer provided gold plated pension".
In short; we traded one company screwing us over without investing in infrastructure for a gang of them screwing us over and not investing in infrastructure.
Whenever governments are pitching something needing to be changed because we, the taxpayer deserve improvement, hang onto your shorts because you're about to be gang raped by a bunch of self interested greedy nincompoops with no collective conscience or moral imperatives.
And think about how long it would take to get power back in the case of a major flood.... Overhead wires can be fixed within hours... But underground wires? Try weeks.
If we can't have it underground due to whatever reasons, we should at least create new by-law to set distance limit between trees and hydro poles so that downed branches wouldn't damage cables hanging close by. I think we also need a national code for that sort of things. Apparently weather is getting more volatile by the season.
Our current system is, while economical, way too vulnerable and outdated for extreme weather. Black outs in summer due to overload and in winter by downed tree branches have become common place and recurrent incidents as hydro rate is going higher and higher. Major improvement is definitely in need. Otherwise, rate hikes would be hard to be justified.
I still think we should push forth the idea of having cable buried underground. It makes perfect sense even if it takes some serious investment up front. The city needs to be modernized in line with the standard of other major cities worldwide.
You're right. I'm aware of that fact as well. But it shouldn't prevent us from doing retrospective improvement work on current infrastructure. It's all matter of investment, of course. I believe it will be money well spent for the city of TO. Hydro companies should take the initiative and make it a priority IMO.
Why not in the meantime, have the utility companies string a catch wire ABOVE the hydro wires. If you notice, usually when a tree hits the hydro wire, the telephone cables which are strung below the hydro cable remain intact. That's why in storms hydro may go out, but the landline phone still works.
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