Monday, November 24, 2008

The End.....

This may be my last post on blogger seeing as the unit is over. I am going to try but do not see much hope in my investigation. I will make a few more calls and not many people have taken much interest. I have sent the email from Greg Stewart giving reasons why they could not install over head power-lines into records. So it may come up in the future.
This may work, I hope.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Recommedation

The other day I got a reply Councillor Bostovikz and he said that if I wanted to address the councillors I should use the format of a public forum speech. I just wanted to ask what is it?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Organising

I am goin to speak to Greg Stewart by phone and figure out a different cheaper solution.
I have done and had no success so I will try a different approach to the solution.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Councillors

I have been in contact with Greg Stewart (Project Manager Strategic Projects & Policy) and he has told me that I should contact a counsillor to assist me in it.
I have choosen Counsillor Anthony Boskovitz (Vaucluse Ward) seeing as that is the area that my intiative is taking place. If he can approve of this then most other councillors will and hopefully put plans ahead. This may be working.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The council

They listen to you once then never listen to you again.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

I am going to keep trying.

I have recieved a letter from the council about my challenge.I would like you all do know that this was a very do able project and it may go ahead.There was slight set backs though one of them was $$money$$ it can cost up to 50, 000 thousand dollars just to put them underground for the length of two poles.Except I have not given up hope I am going to contact Electricity Australia to see what they can do and I am going to raise some money. It may not end up being much but it shows that I care.This may interest the council to know someone is trying to do it. I am probably going to aim for just one street this time and it may be small. Still you never know the state government may come in and support a bit I am not sure about all this but I want to complete it.Even thought this topic may be ending in a few weeks time I am still going to keep blogging and contacting and keeping you informed!

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