Look out your window. You see a lovely blue sky, trees laden with singing birds and ...chances are you also see a set of poles and wires spoiling the view and possibly damaging your health.The airborne arbor supporting fat black electrical spaghetti is undermining your home value.
The city frequently buries the poles in a process called undergrounding, which not only beautifies a streetscape, but it makes residents safer from storms as big winds can tear these wires and turn them into vengeful killer snakes swooping down from the skies. And here in Quebec we all recall the terrible ice storm caused when these suckers collapsed.
It's in your interest to have your municipal authorities bury electrical wires underground.
In Montreal the city buries poles on a few blocks every year and those homes are said to increase in value, possibly by up to three percent according to one study, so if your home is worth $350,000 that's over $10,000 in your pocket upon resale.
But it's a costly task and getting them to do it requires a bit of luck in the form of bad luck.
Yes you can request that your municipality bury the poles. But they will likely ignore that request because the one thing that gets them on the job replacing these overhead eyesores is sewer repair.
The city usually only gets inspired to bury the poles when they are already doing sewer repairs.
In some cases in the past they've done sewers without doing the poles, which is a pretty bad rip-off for residents of those areas.
Sadly, the City of Montreal waited until 2009 to oblige developers to include underground wires on their projects, and as a result there are even a few newer developments that failed to underground, as the process is know.
Official Gilles Gaudet of the Montreal Electrical Services Commission, a body within the City of Montreal which has has 115 employees and was founded in 1910, has provided me the following list of streets that are slated to have their poles undergrounded, a process that takes up to four years from beginning to completion, as it requires considerable planning and cooperation with road repair units.
- A section of Woodland in Verdunn
-Hadley in Cote. St. Paul, in a job which includes Beaulieu.
- Center St. in the Point from Atwater to Wellington.
-Sections of Wellington in the Point and in streets nearby such as Mullins and Richardson.-St. Patrick between Pitt and the Atwater Tunnel.
- In South-central downtown Plessis, Panet and Beaudry between Ontario and Sherbrooke, Alexandre de Seve between Ste. Catherine and de Maisonneuve.
- In Villeray on Des Erables near Belanger and L.O. David St.
-Jarry E. between Iberville and Pie IX.
-A section of Rosemount between Rachel and Sherbrooke east of St. Michel is slated to be done, including streets like Bourbonniere, Joliette, Valoids, Chambly, Orleans and Rachel between Molson and Boul. St. Michel.
The MESC only deals with areas within the City of Montreal, so if you live in a different municipality you can ring up your town hall and ask them if there's a chance that they'll lose the poles in front of your home.
Some towns like Candiac, St. Hubert have buried their poles and Hydro Quebec recommends prospective home buyers in new constructions to specifically ask if the phone poles are buried before purchasing.
I wonder how much more expensive it is to repair and replace underground transformers which can obviously become inundated after heavy rainfalls or water main failures.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, underground transformers can overheat or otherwise become defective and catch fire, sending smoke billowing up into the street and even forcing manhole covers to fly off.
There was even a tragic incident year back when someone was walking along the sidewalk on the east side of Decarie near Plamondon, when the underground transformer exploded.
Soe years back, I remember seeing a manhole cover vibrating up and down on the northeast corner of Crescent and de Maisonneuve, with smoke pouring out. Hours later, they had the streets closed down to fix it.
How many of NYC's underground transformers will have to be replaced following Hurricane Sandy?
The underground rooms where they store the transformers always have a few feet of water in them, even on dry days on high ground.
ReplyDeleteHow many of NYC underground transformers will have to be replaced thanks to Sandy? Probably a lot less then the above ground ones that are now sitting in someones living room. Just sayin'
Not that I am advocating the continuance of unsightly hydro poles and overhead wires over underground installations, but I am wondering which is the most cost-effecive and secure.
ReplyDeleteAbove ground would be cheaper to install than underground, obviously, but the maintenance cost of above ground has to be far more, not to mention reliability. One of the things I love and admire most about Montreal is the reliability of our electric grid. We have far fewer brownouts and blackouts here than I have noticed in other cities I have lived, whether in Canada the US or overseas. In fact aside from a few times, including the ice storm I have rarely ever witnessed a blackout aside from ones that have been planned and made public in advance for maintenance. Even during the ice storm I lost power for only 1 night, unlike other areas on the island where their infrastructure was above ground who lost power for much much longer.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have to worry much about floods, wind, lightning, ice, squirrels etc taking our power away.
No argument from me, underground is the way to go, we are lucky to have the geography that can support it and the resources to build it.
Yes, despite all of the political stupidity up here, at least Hydro Quebec (so far, anyway) isn't gouging its customers the way they are gouged in places like California, Australia, etc.
ReplyDeleteI just remembered seeing for the first time recently from the Westmount Lookout, through binoculars, several wind machines off in the distance toward the southwest.
Not exactly sure what town or district is utilizing them, though. I haven't checked Hydro's website to see if it's mentioned.
Yes, despite all of the political stupidity up here, at least Hydro Quebec (so far, anyway) isn't gouging its customers the way they are gouged in places like California, Australia, etc.
ReplyDeleteI just remembered seeing for the first time recently from the Westmount Lookout, through binoculars, several wind machines off in the distance toward the southwest.
Not exactly sure what town or district is utilizing them, though. I haven't checked Hydro's website to see if it's mentioned.
I don't have home value. In fact, I flourish when home values are eroded. Bring on the poles and cables, may they flourish!
ReplyDeleteUrbanLegend, have you noticed the little thing on the Hydro bill called 'redevance d'abonnement'? Include that in price comparisons with other countries' consumers electrical costs
ReplyDeleteCalifornia and Australia have expensive energy sources because they don't have a wealth of Cree land they can flood for mega-dams whenever they please.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find my candles and flashlight.