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Progress? Boston getting telephone poles not made of wood
By adamg on Tue, 05/20/2014 - 7:45am
Look how straight and tall and proud that new pole is.
Crews were busy along Austin Street in Hyde Park yesterday, throwing up these new, bigger, plastickier utility poles.
With any luck, when they're done, they'll take down the old poles, rather than just leaving them up like they've tended to do over the years.
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Comments
progress?
Wood is sustainable petroleum products not so much. Wish the city burried all utility lines.
Bury 'em
Overhead lines should go, for many reasons — like ease of access for service, protection from weather and tree falls, aesthetics.
Interesting question.
Probably does make sense in many parts of the Northeast. It's more expensive to bury and more expensive and slower to service, but more aesthetic and more weather resistant. Obviously it is not an option anywhere with earthquakes or even minimal flooding, so most of coastal and low-lying areas of the Northeast won't want in the next couple decades. IT's been done well in some European countries.
Transformers
If buried, we'll still likely get above-ground transformers because the electrical workers understandably don't like going down into underground vaults. At least a bit more than 5 years ago the NStar was arguing with a Big Name Higher Ed about underground vs above ground. Big Name Higher Ed won that round, but I don't think many have the power behind them to do so. So you'll still see big boxes all around.
I agree with you, nonetheless. Just know that it isn't as clean a solution as we'd like.
Still need light poles
I run down this street, so I have a sidewalk interest in this project. A few of the older poles are blocking more of the sidewalk than I am comfortable with, and some of the streetlights have been taken down and now replaced, which I really notice at night.
Though I want the whole thing to be done as soon as possible, looking at the wires up there, it seems quite complex. So, yes, aesthetically no wires would look good, but the poles are definitely needed. And as others noted, as this is a private sector thing, the costs will factor, with elevated being much cheaper than underground.
Transformer fires
will melt these to the ground like a birthday candle.
Interesting
I've noticed that alot of high-voltage transmission lines are also being replaced from tall, wooden poles to much bigger pre-weathered ones - some sort of rusted steel look to them.
I believe it's getting harder
I believe it's getting harder to get long straight enough trees for utility poles. The ones they can get have all sorts of issues, they need to be treated to prevent pests from eating them and make them waterproof, with nasty petrochems.
Same thing happened with masts for wooden ships back in the day.
So I apparently composite poles are the future.
http://www.duratelgreen.com/
Utility poles are made from
Utility poles are made from specifically grown trees on tree farms. I imagine it costs more money to farm trees than to extrude them from some composite material.
Pole and Conduit Commission
Read the Minutes of the most recent Public Meeting of a favorite Pole and Conduit Commission of a metropolitan area citiy or town, for example via
http://www.cityofboston.gov/contact/?id=36
http://www.cityofboston.gov/boardsandcommissions/default.aspx?boardid=56
or
http://www.cambridgema.gov/boardsandcommissionsdirectory/boardsandcommis...
These telephone poles are in
These telephone poles are in people's back yards throughout Boston neighborhoods, used mainly by telephone land lines, when cable television was introduced in boston in the early 1980s cablevision/comcast were using these poles and still do ,to set up cable lines, now you have sattelite dish companies using these poles in Boston neighborhoods where you have 6 or 7 sattelite dishes attatched to multi family houses,you have multiple wires attatched to pole to house, most lines are useless because previous renters of houses have left long ago, this leaves blight in the neighborhoods and mostly the streets of East Boston, they leave behind the sattelite dish bolted to the side of house's and the useless wires that are attatched to pole to sattelite dish, City of Boston should tax every company which includes comcast, verizon, and all the sattelite dish companies who use the telephone pole in city of boston.Tax every single telephone pole in city...
Tax every pole?
The Menino Administration tried to strong arm Verizon into paying "real estate" taxes on all the utility poles in Boston. Thanks to the Mayor we are stuck with slow motion DSL rather than fast motion Fios. Another Menino legacy the media tries to sweep under the carpet.
Internet Availability
So when does Hyde Park get decent internet? The only internet available in Hyde Park is either very slow or very expensive. There is no high speed DSL nor Fios available. Other neighborhoods in Boston get free WiFi for all residents paid for by the city, why not Hyde Park?
No high speed DSL?
No Verizon? Or do you mean "only Verizon"?