The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will spend $95 million to help strengthen Hawaii’s electrical grid in the wake of deadly wildfires that swept through parts of Maui earlier this month. The fast-moving fires were the deadliest in modern U.S. history, killing more than 100 people on the island, forcing thousands...
Trenching (dirt/grass) and boring (road or driveway) are both much more expensive in comparison to just running it overhead with poles. You first have to add the surrounding conduit cost in to properly protect the cable from water damage compared to just hanging it up. Easements are about the same I believe between the two but I’m sure, depending on the place, those underground easements will have to deal with more obstacles such as existing water and waste rather than just throwing up a pole every 200’.
Then there is also the troubleshooting issue for line crews for if a cable faults out, you then have to dig out a much larger section to first find the issue then to splice it rather than just splicing the overhead line with a normal line crew and splice kit.
I can’t remember the exact numbers but I think the ratio for overhead, trenching, and boring was around $4/6/8 per foot making it over twice as expensive to bore over just throwing up some poles. Numbers can definitely vary, but most utilities probably won’t want to trench and bore unless they have to.
Biden pledges $95 million for Hawaii’s electrical grid after Maui wildfires (www.washingtonpost.com)
The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will spend $95 million to help strengthen Hawaii’s electrical grid in the wake of deadly wildfires that swept through parts of Maui earlier this month. The fast-moving fires were the deadliest in modern U.S. history, killing more than 100 people on the island, forcing thousands...