April 17, 2015
Undergroundig overloaded powerlines
Yesterday the base of an electricity pole in our street started burning. Not unusual, told Captain Daniel Dobbs from the Culver City Fire Department. “We can’t start quenching the fire without electrocuting ourselves. So we will wait for Edison, the electricity company, to cut down the power.”
Daniel tells me he followed several master classes on hazard prevention and disaster management, also from Dutch engineers. He considers the poles dangerous and blames the huge amount of utility poles, carrying often too much power lines and communication cables, on short-term thinking.
Slowly the City of Los Angeles transfers to undergroundig, focusing primarily on dense areas, the main streets and new developments. The program foresees to underground 35% of the power lines by 2030
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I wonder, what will be first, drones delivering post orders, pole-free residential areas, or the transformation of these areas into denser urban sites?
patriciabijvoet 