Recent tree cutting by Eversource and Metro-North at the Westport train station evoked a predictable response: Bury the power lines!
It sounds doable, though probably expensive.
Recent tree removal (and overhead wires) at the Westport train station. (Photo/Matthew Mandell)
But that’s not the only issue. A Westporter with long experience in areas like this writes:
To “burying the lines” — and not just those owned by Eversource, but also phone (now owned by Frontier) and cable (Optimum) — you’d need to:
- Get all 3 companies working on the project simultaneously
- Get 100% of every house, building, traffic signal, street light, closed circuit TV camera, fire siren, crosswalk signal, etc., to agree to go underground
- Every existing overhead service would need to be prepared for the new underground connection in advance (and all work on private property up to and including the meter box and service panel at the home or building is the responsibility of the owner — costing at least several thousand dollars for just a simple home (200 amp, which is not the average with today’s large homes)
- Once all are agreed 100%, the underground system would be installed in conduits in trenches alongside or within the street, including pad-mounted transformers (boxy containers roughly 3 x 4 feet by 3-foot high, located along the street on the shoulder of the road)
- Each home or building owner would trench from the transformer pad to the location on the house or building where the meter would be (all trenching on private property is done by the home or building owner’s contractor, paid for by the owner)
- Once all is ready (as in 100%), the system would then be transferred to the new underground wiring from the overhead
- Only when all the above is done 100%, and every building is operating on the new underground system (electric, phone and cable), can the old overhead system of wires, poles and transformers be removed.
If all this sounds very complicated, very expensive and nearly impossible: It is!
Which is why the overhead system we look at continues as the source for somewhere around 90% of most towns’ residences and commercial buildings in this area.
Cables on South Compo Road. Burying these lines is far easier said than done. (Photo/Morgan Mermagen)