[context: I’m in a small city of 6k people. This stupid town is known for constant power outages due to high wind and snow. Are they stubborn or is it really that hard to switch this small town to underground power so we stop having power outages anytime someone even sneezes?]
In: 38
To me it’s much like the stereotype of water pipes in England: they’re much easier to fix if they’re run on the outside and freeze.
You’d not have as many outages with last mile cabling underground. At the same time randoms digging and cutting the cables will become a problem. On the other hand trucks that are too high or cars crashing into the poles along with the weather outages are still an issue with above ground cabling.
I don’t live in the States but quite a few places have those tiny flags put out to mark cabling and other stuff. So digging might not be an issue if properly marked? In Sweden we put a brightly colored netting just under the grass so if someone digs the net will be pulled up and warn the operator before getting close to the actual cabling/pipes/etc.
Edit: if doing underground, absolutely add a huge amount of free conduit. If possible, add fiber at the same time, or later using the free conduit. If the city owns the conduit they can either sell parts to different providers, or better yet, rent the conduit to providers. Passive income to the city to use for whatever.
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