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vexingsilence t1_jcb31sf wrote

Reply to comment by schillerstone in How is storm response and two year tree trimming cheaper than burying electric lines?? by schillerstone

>As someone who works in the industry, it gets old hearing that we should just bury the lines. This works in dense areas, but for rural areas (like the vast majority of NH) it is extremely cost prohibitive. Installing buried conduit, manholes, transformer foundations, etc. is often upwards of $200-$300 per FOOT of buried conduit. Even more expensive if it has to be concrete-encased, or God forbid there is ledge (rock) in the way that needs to be hammered out (btw this is New Hampshire, the Granite State, there is ledge absolutely EVERYWHERE). And that doesn't even include the cost of installing (pulling, splicing) the actual cables and transformers themselves.

From /u/vwturbo in this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/newhampshire/comments/11qy0mu/what_is_the_deal_with_the_nh_grid/

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schillerstone OP t1_jcb3v5b wrote

Thanks for the details but I am not moved. People literally build homes into blasted ledge everyday. We drill water wells through ledge. We drill for oil and gas everywhere. We mine for metal ores, which is also rock. I mean, what a lame excuse. I think all of the people talking about ledge just remember the times when they personally cannot move something from their yard. We have heavy equipment, sonics drills, and dynamite. This is nothing new.

With your attitude, we'd never have had fiber optic cables, city sewer and water, oil and gas pipelines, etc.

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vexingsilence t1_jcb567r wrote

>With your attitude, we'd never have had fiber optic cables, city sewer and water, oil and gas pipelines, etc.

As a state, we do not have those things. Water, sewage, and gas tend to only be available in parts of the state that have the density to make it cost effective to bury those things. Otherwise you have well, a septic system, and either heating oil or propane.

Fiber rollout has been slower in areas with buried utilities. It takes more time to install than simply running them on poles. The funny part is that once you reach a high enough density, there aren't many trees left to fall on the lines.

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jlangemann-man t1_jcbma88 wrote

I have to ask, have you been to areas of the state (such as Newcaste Island) where the water pipes are above ground, on the surface, because it is too prohibitive for many of the reasons listed above to have them below ground, like you see them in other areas?

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Shadeddragonman t1_jcbfvo0 wrote

Yes they do and they pay a pretty penny to do so. As for mining ore that is done for profit. No profit in ledge

Yes we can it just costs money. Last time a heard a study about it 10 years or so. Would cost every man woman and child in nh 36000 to do it.

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