March 23, 2011
Hydro One plans major
work
by Vance Gutzman
Hydro One is getting a major relocation project off the ground and into
the ground.
Officials from the electrical utility were at Deep River council
last week and presented the company's plans to remove a clutter of
hydro poles from residential backyards and relocate the power lines
underground along the street.
The ambitious project stems from the lessons that were learned
following the major wind storm that swept through town back in 2006.
While hydro easements exist to all backyard hydro lines, many of them
have been built over with garages, decks or gazebos, and that made it
very difficult for Hydro One crews to gain access to areas where poles
and lines had toppled over in the wind.
"After the storm we talked about taking a lot of the backyard junk out
onto the street," Hydro One's Dave Whittier told town council last week.
"It never materialized, because the cost was too great."
But Hydro One now has the funds available to do the work, or at
least the first phase of it.
The company unveiled a five-year plan which will see the poles and
lines removed from backyards and town easements and buried underground
along town streets.
The first phase of the project, which is expected to start this May and
run all year, will see that work take place in the area of Frontenac
Street, Ridge Road, Rutherford Avenue and Hammond Court.
"Every customer will be getting a new underground 200 amp service into
their home," Whittier said.
And, because they're multi-use cables, the customers will also be
getting new telephone and cable wires to boot.
It may not be pretty at the beginning, Whittier said of the work,
but it will look just fine in the end.
"There is going to be a mess," he said of the initial stages, adding
that Hydro One will take great pains to put things back to the way they
were.
"The backyards will be totally top-soiled and re-seeded," Whittier
promised.
"The yards will be clean."
Burying the lines under roadways will necessitate the tearing up of
asphalt, but that too has been taken care of, according to Whittier,
who said arrangements have already been made with a paving company,
which will keep pace with Hydro One's schedule.
"There will be no issues with roads," Whittier said.
Hydro One is also taking the step of setting up a special phone line at
its Deep River office, once the project starts, through which customers
with any concerns about the on-going work can leave messages.
"That will be checked every day, and their concerns will be answered,"
he said.
While Hydro One hopes to have all its infrastructure removed from
backyards by the end of the five-year plan, the company has only
secured funding from head office thus far for the 2011 work.
"It's a five-year plan, but the (funding) guarantee is for one year,"
said Lyla Garzouzi, an asset management worker out of Hydro One's
Toronto offices.
Deep River Mayor David Thompson said he hopes the people at head office
will see the value in maintaining the funding for the full five years.
"We would very much welcome the continuance of this work," he said.
"The remediation of this is very much welcomed."
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