We see them so often, they blend into the landscape: crews of all kinds, digging up the streets, and working on utility poles.
Alert “06880” reader Manuel Castedo sees them too. But he’s not sitting back, waiting in line for traffic to ease (or an overladen wire to fall on his head). He writes:
“On my street (Beachside Avenue), Southern Connecticut Gas just finished replacing the main.
“Now a month later, Aquarion is digging another new trench for replacing the water mains. This affects traffic to the point of having to close the street. It goes on for weeks.
“Then are the long, sloppy scars left behind on what would otherwise be smooth asphalt surfaces.
Beachside Avenue.
“In addition, cable company trucks everywhere constantly maintain their ever- expanding cables suspended from poles along the streets.
“They have grown in numbers over the years. Now the poles are under stress due to their weight. Companies are adding guy wires to secure and add stability to the poles.
“All this digging, repaving and continuous maintenance seems to be very wasteful. It cannot be the best way to do things. (Never mind the problem of power/cable outages when storms come, or trucks hit overhead sagging cabling.
“There has to be a better way.
Utility lines.
“The other day, I sent a proposal for a better approach (see email below ) to key individuals at Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, Department of Transportation, the Planning and Development Committee, State Emergency Management Commission, State Senator Ceci Maher, State Representative Jonathan Steinberg, and State Representative Norman Needleman, his counterpart in the Transportation Committee.
“I also tried sending it to the heads of Eversource, Aquarion and Southern Connecticut Gas, but could not get their emails.
Manuel noted that Aquarion’s upcoming “disruptive and expensive digging up of the streets could be an ideal opportunity to plan intelligently for the future.
“When the trench is opened, why not just drop a couple of additional empty PVC conduits that could be readily accessed in the future when the time comes to replace, or add more, electrical or cable service runs.
“These trenches are usually 2 or 3 feet wide by 6 to 7 feet deep, which is enough room to accommodate water, electrical, telecom and gas lines with the required 12-to-24-inch separation between them.
“The addition of this PVC piping would be a relatively small investment because after a street is dug up –- for whatever reason — the large cost of excavation is already factored in. The conduit pipes would be in place for future replacement of the existing vulnerable street pole system currently in use. It would eventually result a much more resilient system, which will save thousands when the storms come or when the posts come down on their own under the weight of the cables.
Getting ready for more Aquarion work. (All photos/Manuel Castedo)
“This could be a win-win project for everyone. The utility companies could make some additional income to include the empty conduits, the power and cable companies would have less constant maintenance required by sagging cables and leaning poles, and consumers would be less prone to outages than they are now.
“Obviously, this approach to improving the infrastructure would require a system of coordination and funding that is not in place, and would need to be carefully planned so it is efficiently and easily implemented. It is extremely wasteful and shortsighted to continue with this inefficient, wasteful, labor intensive way of doing business by utility companies in the state.
“The intelligent approach to burying cabling conduits as an integral part of any street excavation or repaving should be required by the State of Connecticut in order to improve grid resilience and reduce long term costs of having to continuously dig up the streets.”
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