Re: [Phys-l] Glaze Ice

[chuck britton <cvbritton@mac.com>]

At 6:10 PM -0600 2/2/10, Hodges, Laurent [PHYSA] wrote:
> Thirty years ago, soon after we built our passive solar home in 
> Ames, Iowa, our municipal electric utility offered homeowners in our 
> area to put the electric lines (then on poles) underground, for $300 
> per homeowner.  We all jumped at the chance, and have never had the 
> problem with ice other communities (or other parts of Ames) have.  I 
> think this is common in many new developments these days, and would 
> recommend it highly.
> _______________________________________________

Many years ago ('70's) there was a tale going around of some 
municipality pushing hard for underground utilities. Developers were 
of course opposed to it because of the higher up-front cost. 
Negotiations went back & forth -
Municipality:	All utilities will be underground.
Developers:	All utilities will be underground where feasible.
Municipality:	All utilities will be underground unless it is found necessary
			to place water and sewerage on overhead poles.

In all fairness, underground power has had serious problems with 
ground water leakage up until the late '90's or so when PVC conduit 
began being used.