Topic: Why doesn’t Arlington have underground utility lines?

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Why doesn’t Arlington have underground utility lines?

steve-o July 1, 2012 - 7:44 pm #51731 Reply

Arlington county must be one of the more affluent counties in the country – why has there never been a long term effort to underground the utilities? I generally don't notice such things, but I've been looking at buying a home here and definitely notice how ugly the poles / wire are in the neighborhoods. Is doing this just an extremely expensive process, or are there other reasons such as the water table that prohibits undergrounding?

porkchop_milkshake July 1, 2012 - 8:44 pm #51732 Reply

Some parts of Arlington do. They’ve been working to expand it.

Rick July 1, 2012 - 9:29 pm #51733 Reply

Always wondered the same thing. It's a requirement in new developments, but I don't think I'll live long enough to see them buried on Glebe road.

redstang423 July 1, 2012 - 11:06 pm #51734 Reply

This one has isn't as much Arlington county as it is Dominion Power. The county can try to entice Dominion to do it, but can't regulate them to do so to my knowledge. Sometimes the locality will just do the dredging and install the conduit, then leasing the space to the utilities and communications companies in the area. In the end though, Dominion will spend the money where ever they get the best returns in improvements to their outage frequency and duration indices. Who knows why Arlington in general hasn't been upgraded further.
steve-o July 2, 2012 - 4:15 am #51735 Reply
porkchop_milkshake said:

Some parts of Arlington do. They've been working to expand it.

Thanks! Here is a good explanation from you link:

Why does it take so long?

The Cherrydale utility undergrounding project is one of the first of its kind undertaken by Arlington County. Additionally, the undergrounding of existing overhead utilities is one of the most complicated types of capital projects that a local jurisdiction can undertake and requires significant resources and capacity to attempt this type of project. In particular, this project faces several challenges including:
- The coordination, management and consideration of the needs of dozens of partners and stakeholders.
- The undergrounding of facilities for three utility partners along the state-owned Lee Highway, all while avoiding existing utilities already under the roadway.
- Private properties adjacent to the undergrounding project are directly affected by the reconfiguration of their existing utility service connections.
- Solutions for one partner’s challenge frequently generate a conflict for another partner.
As part of this process, Arlington must rely upon each partner to provide detailed plans for their infrastructure and systems, coordinate and review each of the designs with relation to the other affected utilities, and construct the underground duct banks and associated facilities to accommodate the utilities’ requirements. Once Arlington has constructed the duct banks and other facilities to accommodate the utilities, Arlington must coordinate the actual demolition, conversion, and new construction on each of the active utility systems. The active utility system demolition, conversion, and construction must be performed by each individual utility on their own system.

Additionally, the County and the utility companies must coordinate with dozens of private properties to convert their overhead services to the new underground facilities. Each entity has unique challenges and priorities.
contractor July 2, 2012 - 9:37 am #51736 Reply
steve-o said:
porkchop_milkshake said:

Some parts of Arlington do. They've been working to expand it.

Thanks! Here is a good explanation from you link:

Why does it take so long?

The Cherrydale utility undergrounding project is one of the first of its kind undertaken by Arlington County. Additionally, the undergrounding of existing overhead utilities is one of the most complicated types of capital projects that a local jurisdiction can undertake and requires significant resources and capacity to attempt this type of project. In particular, this project faces several challenges including:
- The coordination, management and consideration of the needs of dozens of partners and stakeholders.
- The undergrounding of facilities for three utility partners along the state-owned Lee Highway, all while avoiding existing utilities already under the roadway.
- Private properties adjacent to the undergrounding project are directly affected by the reconfiguration of their existing utility service connections.
- Solutions for one partner’s challenge frequently generate a conflict for another partner.
As part of this process, Arlington must rely upon each partner to provide detailed plans for their infrastructure and systems, coordinate and review each of the designs with relation to the other affected utilities, and construct the underground duct banks and associated facilities to accommodate the utilities’ requirements. Once Arlington has constructed the duct banks and other facilities to accommodate the utilities, Arlington must coordinate the actual demolition, conversion, and new construction on each of the active utility systems. The active utility system demolition, conversion, and construction must be performed by each individual utility on their own system.

Additionally, the County and the utility companies must coordinate with dozens of private properties to convert their overhead services to the new underground facilities. Each entity has unique challenges and priorities.
Yes. Plus there's the fact that it costs about $1 million per mile.
JimPB July 2, 2012 - 5:41 pm #51737 Reply

Putting in underground lines in settled communities is very expensive. For example: a billion or so for D.C. and four billion or so for Montgomery County. My rough calculation is that taking utility lines underground for all of ARLCo would represent a cost of about $1,500 per resident/$3,000 or so per household. Utility customers would have to pay for the work through increased charges. (There's no other source for the money required.)

Underground utility lines have problems, too. Ground settles and the casting/cover for the line(s) deteriorates, leading to problems. Accessing the underground line(s) involves more effort and costs more than getting to above ground lines. (I know of an apartment complex that has spent “real money” in digging in an effort (unsuccessful to date) to find what appears to be an underground water leak. Same problem in locating a problem with underground power and phone/cable/IT lines. Then there's the same problem of more effort and greater cost for expanding capability or upgrading lines — e.g., think Verizon putting in the FIOS lines.

ARLNow.Com — Nice to have Dominion, Verizon, etc./Arl Co representatives talk/write about the specifics and pros and cons of underground utility lines.

contractor July 5, 2012 - 9:38 am #51738 Reply

JimPB said:

Putting in underground lines in settled communities is very expensive. For example: a billion or so for D.C. and four billion or so for Montgomery County. My rough calculation is that taking utility lines underground for all of ARLCo would represent a cost of about $1,500 per resident/$3,000 or so per household.

PEPCO's cost estimate for doing it in DC, which is a somewhat similar situation to ours, was ALOT higher than that.

redstang423 July 5, 2012 - 1:56 pm #51739 Reply

I wouldn't even try to estimate financial impact. The biggest driver is the length of conduit you'd have to apply. Number of service points hardly impacts the cost beyond that. Miles of roads, while still inaccurate, is the best indicator of cost. Utilities have budgets for general upgrades. The entire cost doesn't get passed on to the customer. All costs involved are offset by benefits realized by the utility in the long run. Also remember, utilities are regulated and can't just raise rates whenever they feel like it. Electric utilities also don't have nearly the same issues that underground water lines have. Electric lines don't “leak.” If they get cut, it's not a secret to anyone – usually someone dies or goes to the hospital when that happens. Even if there isn't a catastrophe and someone tries to hide that they cut it, it's very easy to diagnose where the problem is with modern SCADA equipment. If there's some other type of problem, it's at transformers, relays, switches, junctions, etc. which are far fewer and much more easily accessible.

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