topic Re: Trees and Power Lines in Community Chat

Trees and Power Lines

Desert Lily — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:54:57 GMT

I live where there are a lot of trees in Pennsylvania. Way too often electric power goes out because a tree has fallen on the power line during a storm or wind.

And the electric company sends out a repair crew to get it up & running again,

The repair crew weaves a new electric line through the remaining trees!

I don't get it.

The next trees down the road will fall in the next wind or storm and pull down another power line. The whole cycle just starts again.

I don't understand why so much time & $ is put back into a design that fails over and over.

To me, it would make more sense to bury power lines underground or use the tall strong metal towers with all the $ they waste with sticking power lines back up into the trees. That electricity infrastructure is old & feeble and should be updated to prevent people from losing power.

Is it greed with utility companies that they won't upgrade rather than putting a band-aid on a system that repeatedly fails people?

Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over & over and expecting different results?

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Puppy Lips — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:48:36 GMT

Yes it is insanity. But I think it is way too expensive to put all the power lines underground. I wish they would though. Old utility poles are an eyesore in my opinion.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

SilleeMee — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:52:48 GMT

Above-ground power lines...aka 'job security'.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Sooner — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:52:54 GMT

Sometimes they just have to cut or prune the trees. Gotta keep the power going.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Kachina624 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:53:52 GMT

@Desert Lily. You're probably aware, being a former Southwesterner, that there have been numerous bad forest fires in the mountains caused by old power poles falling over, sparking and igniting fires.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Etoile308 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:55:42 GMT

Perhaps not all topographies are suited to a massive underground wire system.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Imaoldhippie — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:56:01 GMT

@Desert Lily ............Good question. Maybe write to the customer service of your power company with your question. Their answer would be interesting.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Rockycoast — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 15:56:53 GMT

I also wish they would put underground the utility lines. In some areas in our town they are now requiring it. With new developments by the ocean they must do it. But the expense to do it with the old lines is astronomical.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Icegoddess — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 16:07:11 GMT

Around here, once a year, a crew goes around cutting the tree limbs away from the power lines. Makes for some ugly trees. It won't help if a whole tree falls onto the lines, but it's just to keep random limbs from falling on them.

It seems that as new neighborhoods are put in, they add in underground utilities. My 1980's neighborhood has underground utilities, but the main street that was there before the neighborhood was added still has above-ground utilities. It's more than likely a major expense to change over, plus it could be more difficult to do with houses all around since they would probably have to turn the power off for long periods of time to do it.

One problem with underground utilites, though, is when they decide to add something new, your yard gets dug up. We've been going through different Fiber companies coming through the neighborhood and each new company digs up the yards. And it's not a shallow dig. The latest was ATT and when they tried to cross the street at my driveway, they were unable to do so even after cutting out a section of the street which had recently been re-paved for the first time in the over 20 years we've lived here. They gave up, and my side of the street won't get ATT fiber unless one of the neighbors request it. I'm not telling them.

Of course, they also recently came around telling us they are transitioning their phone service to Fiber, so I'm sure they'll be back soon to finish the job. I had to explain that to the people going door to door. They were confused when I told them I didn't have ATT VOIP because I was on their "list". Nope, I've got good old copper wire phone service. Yeah, they're getting rid of that too. Bye bye ATT bill.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

SilleeMee — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 16:07:41 GMT

I live in a fairly older neighborhood and all of the power lines are on poles. Not only the power lines but also everyone's internet cables are attached to the poles making the poles carry even more weight and stress. You can see some of the poles are leaning and some are starting to show signs of splitting. Just a matter of time when something will break.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Nightowlz — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 16:56:09 GMT

I'm so glad we don't have power lines running above in our housing area. They are in the ground.

The wires running up & down the main street where we go out of the addition are all on massive silver poles. Not sure what they are made from?

Those poles used to be wood like the others but they replaced them all since every time a storm rolled in those brown wood poles snapped like twigs.

Generally the only problems we have now is during freezing rain or sleet that can cause the power to go out.

The City has trees cut back away from the power lines on their easements but it's hard to keep up with all of them. The trees look horrible when they do that.

If homeowners would keep trees on their property cut back they wouldn't have to worry about them going down during a storm which knocks the power lines down if the trees hit it.

People plant trees that are way too large for their property. When it storms eventually they will have a tree in their house? We took care of ours before that could happen.

We also had to pay to have 2 of the neighbors trees cut back so they were not hanging over our roof. Since we paid to have that done both of those trees have died. LOL!!!

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Desert Lily — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:01:34 GMT

@Nightowlz I agree about trees that could fall on the house in a storm. You're right; it doesn't make sense to plant a huge tree that will tower over the house. I'm glad you got the trees taken care of b4 anything happened.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

bikerbabe — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:11:47 GMT

The cost to change to all underground is billions of dollars. Seriously. We are above ground here also.

Where I live, which is inside city limits, they will come out and trim tree branches away from electric lines - but you have to call it in. They won’t trim branches from phone or cable lines. Electric only.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Nightowlz — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:25:23 GMT

@Desert Lily wrote:
@Nightowlz I agree about trees that could fall on the house in a storm. You're right; it doesn't make sense to plant a huge tree that will tower over the house. I'm glad you got the trees taken care of b4 anything happened.

@Desert Lily

There are huge trees around most houses unless they are new. I don't understand why people don't deal with them before they end up in their house?

State Farm told us if his trees fell through the roof during a storm our Insurance would cover the damage? Doesn't seem right our insurance pays while his doesn't. Why should we get stuck with higher premiums for that?

We decided to pay to have them cut back instead of our insurance going up when it happened. Plus we didn't want to deal with our roof & or other home repairs due to damage from his trees.

Part of the one tree had already came off during a storm that took down our outdoor antenna. We have since replaced it with one we installed in the back of the house.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

SilleeMee — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:51:11 GMT

Around here arborists charge hefty fees to trim trees. Most people don't want (or can't afford) to pay for that. Rather wait for an insurance claim and go that route instead.

Twenty years ago I paid $1500 to cut down a 20-foot tall maple. What would that cost me today?!

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Krimpette — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:39:17 GMT

My neighborhood was built in 1984. All our power lines are under ground. However, we are in the midst of older neighborhoods with above ground power. However, a few years ago, our power company came through the older neighborhood and did some very judicious pruning of the many trees. Not to way we don't still have an occasional power......if some driver plows into a power pole!

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Jk9 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:57:30 GMT

I live in a horse country rural area with a lot of big horse farms and some big vacant pastures and wooded areas too. And there are big streams and creeks around, too. It's not like living in a newer housing development where you can run lines to a lot of dwellings in a short distance. The state and county trim the trees around the roads and power lines here. There are housing developments being built here now and I don't see power poles there, but there are poles to get utilities to those developments.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

RedTop — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 18:16:05 GMT

I live in a rural location in southern WV; am surrounded by mountains on all sides and a gazillion trees. The way it works here with trees and power lines is; when it breaks, they fix it.

There is NO way to have underground power lines in this neighborhood. Right of way crews come thru every few years and cut/trim/spray the 15 foot strip under the power lines. All rural back roads are lined with trees with branches hanging over the road in some locations. When the state gets enough complaints, a crew is sent out to trim those branches. The tree itself can be leaning towards the road and the only thing that will be done is trim the branches. Nothing will be done to the tree until it falls in the road.

I realize the state doesn't have the money to pay a road crew just to keep trees trimmed around the county, but a bit more roadside maintenance would surely be beneficial in the long run.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

Desert Lily — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 23:01:49 GMT

I think electric companies could update how power is delivered to homes, but they don't do it. If they added all the costs of labor & materials that they wasted for numerous decades, they could've put that $ toward upgrading. It doesn't have to go underground if it's difficult in an area; they could switch over to the very tall metal towers if it's easier. Companies make the choice of being penny-wise & dollar foolish or perhaps being greedy, while customers keep losing power that they depend on.

The towers are more substantial & reliable. When I lived on the west coast, some nearby developments had towers. My development there had underground electricity wires, and that's what I have in PA.

Branches might get trimmed, but branches also grow. Wires among the trees seems as backward as some of our transportation infrastructure, like no high-speed railways & deteriorating bridges.

Re: Trees and Power Lines

SaveTheTurtles — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:50:01 GMT

@Desert Lily I feel your pain. My street is the same. I always think if they would just do a few more…