Comments on Weekend links: Powerless - Greater Greater Washington

Comment by Rich

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:00:26 EDT

@Rebecca and others; the performance of overhead lines also depends on how recently the local system has been updated to improve capacity. My old street in Atlanta had decades old, inadequate lines when I moved-in and the power went down in every significant storm. Then, one day they came updated everything--new wiring along the street, new boxes, etc. and the supply was adequate in all kinds of whether until a tree limb brought down the line to my house.

Comment by Avenger

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 07:07:30 EDT

@Rich: it costs much less to build a subdivision that way than it does to tear up an existing one to put the lines underground.

Comment by Rich

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 22:42:43 EDT

@Amber, developers have been building suburban subdivisions with underground utilities since before WWII.

Comment by AWalkerInTheCity

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 20:06:31 EDT

bTW, I am posting from Panera, where we came for a break after now close to 48 hours without power. Ice cculdn't be had for love or money till a couple of hours ago.

Most of the roads are okay. Most people have figured out how to navigate without traffic lights. Yesterday things were getting VERY tense at the few open gas stations. The cyclists Ive seen out and about seem to be enjoying it, and buses seem to be doing fine.

Comment by AWalkerInTheCity

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 19:59:16 EDT

When is it the last straw for climate change denial? When is it the last straw for trashing the planet?

Comment by Amber

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 19:24:03 EDT

@jyindc Burying power lines costs massive amounts of money - way, way more than repair costs of downed aerial lines. Massive amounts of money means that it's only financially feasible for denisities greater than that of typical suburbia. Greater density means more public transportation. Public transportation means socialism. So no.

Comment by Rich

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 19:14:08 EDT

@jyindc. I know people in MoCo who have underground utilities and live close to a substation, yet always lose power for days in a storm.

Comment by jyindc

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 18:15:17 EDT

So, is this the last straw for finally putting key power lines underground? Granted this was one hell of a storm, but reduced versions of this power event seem to happen pretty frequently now.

Comment by oboe

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 11:15:16 EDT

Strange, living in town, I had no idea there were so many problems throughout the region until I talked to a friend who flew in to Dulles and had to make his way back home. I'm so old I can remember when every storm meant disaster for the city and the suburbs shrugged things off.

Comment by thump

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 10:58:36 EDT

Agreed Greenbelt, I "had to" go up Landover Rd. yesterday and the amount of people who just blasted through intersections w/o working lights was astounding! I saw two very close calls where drivers just drove through when everyone else was stopped (treating the light as a 4-way stop) nearly hitting turning vehicles. I was nearly rear-ended twice as well when stopping. A true fustercluck.

Comment by Greenbelt

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 08:30:14 EDT

Suburban traffic sewers were pretty dysfunctional in Greenbelt area yesterday with the signals out. Police had to tape off all left turns on to or off Greenbelt Road, in a futile attempt to prevent mayhem. For example, no left from Gbelt Road on to the Parkway, no left from Hanover Road on to Gbelt Road, no left from Southway on to Greenbelt Road etc. etc. Of course, I think our arterials are pretty horrible all the time, but this was particularly bad.

Comment by rdhd

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:09:02 EDT

Classic Metro. There is a downed tree on Cathedral Ave NW that is keeping the N6 from running its usual route--i.e. a service interruption. Yet Metro does not have the N6 listed as one of the effected routes and is not part of their notifications to riders--and there are people out there waiting for the bus.

This is the classic sort of screw up on Metro's part that makes dealing with them so frustrating.