The reply.

Dear Andrew,
The following information is provided in response to your e-mail to Councillor Boskovitz regarding overhead power lines in Vaucluse and their placement underground:
1. A percentage of the power lines in the Vaucluse area have already been placed underground,
2. As you have stated in your e-mail, the main factor preventing the undergrounding of overhead power lines is the cost involved.
3. Energy Australia, who for a large part of the Sydney region, are the organisation responsible for the provision of power lines (i.e. not a Council responsibility), have indicated that it would cost between $56,000 and $104,000 per span (distance between two poles) to place overhead cabling underground. The likely cost per span in this Municipality would probably be higher as in a lot of cases, rock excavation and extensive traffic management arrangements would be required.
4. I do not know the number of spans in the Vaucluse Area but it would be quite substantial. When you multiply this by the indicated cost per span, the cost of undergrounding overhead cables is very high. If it was to be carried out, then the question becomes who should pay for it?
5. As part of the recent upgrading works to the Five Ways Shopping Centre in Paddington, Council paid more than $600,000 to have the overhead cabling placed underground. It will also consider doing so as part of any future upgrading works to our shopping centres.
6. As you correctly state in your e-mail, the pruning of street trees to avoid interference with overhead power lines, severely disfigures the shape of the street trees. Although this has a visual impact on the streetscape of an area, it is usually carried out in such a manner so as not to affect the healh or structure of the tree.
7. Street trees have not been planted in some streets along one side of the street due to the presence of overhead power cables.
7. In order to reduce the impact on street trees in some streets where the trees are a significant part of the streetscape, Council has paid to have the overhead cables "bundled' between poles. This process, which involves all the overhead cables between poles being bundled together as one cable, reduces the extent of tree pruning required. Because the resultant cable is much thicker than the original cables, in some instances, where for example the cable runs through a view line, the aerial bundled cable can be much more noticeable and have greater impact than the single wires.
8. The undergrounding of overhead cabling does not enable all support poles to be removed. A large number of the poles need to be retained for street lighting purposes.
9. Energy Australia have a pole inspection program in place whereby every pole is inspected on a regular basis to ensure that they are in a satisfactory condition.
10.Although not all poles could be removed if the overhead cabling was placed underground, some poles could be removed. As a large number of road deaths occur from vehicles coming into contact with power poles, this reduced number of poles would result in lesser road deaths.
11. The placement of cables underground makes it more difficult to locate cable faults and more expensive and time consuming to repair. This has an impact on Energy Australia's customers as during a power fault, their customers would be without power for an extended period of time. In cases where the fault is in the roadway, it would also have a greater impact on traffic flows and traffic delays.
12.Overhead power cables are much more susceptible to damage during storms and high winds. Fallen power lines and their potential risk to the public is elimated if the cables were placed underground. The number of power failures would also be significantly reduced.
13. In a few locations throughout this Municipality, where power cables have obstructed significant views to the harbour, some property owners have paid to have the cables placed underground. These residents were of the view that the cost of undergrounding the cables was more than offsett by the increased value of the property.
I hope that the above information assists you in completing your project. As indicated above, the main problem with having the overhead cabling placed underground is the cost involved.
Call me if you have any queries.

Regards

Greg StewartProject Manager Strategic Projects & PolicyWoollahra Municipal Counciltele 9391 7123 or 0419 205236