# How does electricity run in your city?



## TopperCity (Apr 30, 2006)

I love powerlines.. don't know why


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## Æsahættr (Jul 9, 2004)

Mostly ugly overhead pylons that disfigure the suble nuances and vibe of the city with their low vibration and ickyness. There are even some in the CBD!
((in manila))


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

lotrfan55345 said:


> Mostly ugly overhead pylons that disfigure the suble nuances and vibe of the city with their low vibration and ickyness. There are even some in the CBD!
> ((in manila))


It's not just Manila but also Bangkok and Jakarta

I'm just curious if some parts of Makati CBD have electricity running underground besides Glorietta. Imagine how bad Ayala Ave. would look if you have electrical poles running in the street.


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## shockw4ve (Jun 4, 2006)

Here in Mumbai, mostly underground.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

I've been hearing that new parts of Shanghai are burying their utilities in tunnels so everything is consolidated. If the phone company wants to check on their lines, they just get the key to the utility tunnel and it's all there, avoiding the hassle of digging up the roads. Likewise, the other utilities, such as electricity, would also be stored in these tunnels. Can anyone confirm this?


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## Aokromes (Jan 5, 2005)

On Vitoria except for industrial areas, the main lines between cities and some rural areas, it's underground.


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## dösanhoro (Jun 24, 2006)

Helsinki underground. Finland underground except rural areas or just low density. The real big lines overground


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## Bombay Boy (May 6, 2005)

underground. except the far suburbs, where there are some overground ones, especially near the incoming main lines


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

I'm in Manila right now and electricity here runs overhead even in the CBD. But the newer areas are undergound. 

I kinda wanna bring back this thread since the city was hit by a typhoon and some part of the city was in blackout for several days or even weeks. The electric company in the city had to fix every powerline with some pylons smashed by billboards.

If Manila's electricity is more than 50% underground, I doubt that you won't have these kinds of blackouts.


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## Eureka! (Jun 7, 2006)

City CBD and newer areas are underground but alot of suburbs are overhead.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Queens, New York had a major outage lasting several weeks this past summer. Main cause was attributed to an explosion in underground transmission facilities due to stress. Even if power lines are buried underground, there can still be outages. Wires will still blow if consumption is too high.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Hartford has a mixture...

The entire CBD and a large portion of the city has underground wires...

But the suburbs (especially the poor areas) have overhead wires...


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## KB (Feb 22, 2006)

In Islamabad, most underground- except for the high tension ones that run through part of the city's green belt.


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## -Corey- (Jul 8, 2005)

WANCH said:


> How does electricity run in your city? Do you run through electrical poles or they run underground?
> 
> Anyway, in HK, it's mostly underground but some parts are connected with electrical poles like some areas in The New Territories or Lantau.


By cables :crazy2:


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## staff (Oct 23, 2004)

Mr_Denmark said:


> But for some reason they don't build lampposts and trafficlights like in the states, instead trafficlights and streetlight are suspended between the buildings in most cases :sleepy:


I love that, it's very unique for Copenhagen. 
As long as they are suspended between buildings and we don't have the poles, it's totally fine by me (even though some of the lamp wires are hanging from poles too).


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## Daniel_Portugal (Sep 24, 2005)

In Porto is everything underground in city center and a lot of suburbs... in some suburbs there are aereal cables, but not to much. cmon... this is EUROPE! :lol: aereal cables is a thing for America, Africa and Asia.


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## Maxx☢Power (Nov 16, 2005)

I've always associated overhead cables with small, tropical, laid back kind of towns where they're mixed with a lot of trees between the houses, and I find it quite charming  But I don't see why they can't bury them in North American cities, and it does look a bit third world as some have already mentioned. Especially in big cities I think they look really bad. But I guess it's another factor of the old American utilitarianism vs European aesthetics..


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## gronier (Mar 2, 2005)

It seems that there are much more overhead power lines in the US than in Europe.


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## jacobboyer (Jul 14, 2005)

Overhead powerlines are something that makes me mad how can anyone like them?? The lines make city streets look cluttered and un-orginized. Do you know if there are any plans or ordinances in Los Angeles, Vegas, Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York to put power lines underground i hope they do because it ruins the nice feels when you go to a city especially San Francisco i couldn't imagine a great clean city like that not to have a law that they have to be below ground.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

gronier said:


> It seems that there are much more overhead power lines in the US than in Europe.


True. In the US, the downtown areas have their power underground but the other parts are overhead.

Jacobboyer, yes it's a nuissance seeing overhead lines especially in cities such as San Francisco. But I think overhead lines are better off since SF is prone to earthquakes.

As for NY, Manhattan is underground. Some part of the other boroughs have their electricity underground as well.


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## ultranet (Oct 22, 2006)

*not good where I am from*

Its not good about electricity..
Loadshedding most of the summer...
imagine!!! this country is one of the best water resources in the world....


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## Sinjin P. (Jul 17, 2005)

99% are overhead cables that in the long run tangle into spaghetti wires.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Jhaelnis said:


> 99% are overhead cables that in the long run tangle into spaghetti wires.


Which city are you talking about? Cebu or Manila?

I'm sure Manila has several areas that have underground cables like Eastwood City for example.


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## god (Apr 8, 2004)

Xäntårx said:


> Not really. A really poor city cannot afford electricity for most of its residents.
> 
> Overland powerlines seems most common in post-communist nations like Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, China, Serbia, Belarus, etc.
> 
> Some towns in Canada have many overland powerlines as well.


In Poland all power lines are underground for years now. (Mayby in some rural areas it's above ground.) But I remember some 10 years ago, power lines were above ground.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

LOL, God speaks...on SkyscraperCity!


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Shanghai, The Huangpu District


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## WalkTheWorld (Aug 1, 2007)

For the vast majority of cities and villages it's all underground.

md-voltage though (say 5000v) is brought from splitting stations to villages via steel poles running through the countryside. Not so weak to go down at the first gust of wind but not as sturdy as major transmission towers.

I think many are missing a point though. Underground lines do have an impact on city budget since power lines belong to power companies, but roads belong to the city and in case of maintenace you have a lot of digging and repaving going on. Power companies will go for a cheap cut and cover and if you don't want your street to look like a patchwork quilt, your city will have to re-pave fairly frequently. I've seen it happen when they buried boradband optical fiber lines. The aftermath of cut and cover looked crappy. The city council had to smoothen it out...at our expenses. No way of sueing the provider. The law says they must restore the roads to full functioning and safety. It does not state good-looks criteria.





cheers


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

In Chicago they're all underground in the central area of the city.

In the residential neighborhoods it's mostly above ground, but it all runs through the alleys. Every street has a single lane alley running behind it, and the trash, garages for cars and utilities are put here. This keeps the street free of clutter, overhead wires, and driveways. You really don't notice the power lines unless you happen to be walking through an alley, which I don't think most people do...

In the inner suburbs they're mostly all overhead, and run along the streets or through people's backyards on the lot lines. I think this is the ugliest, cause they're RIGHT there for you to view. In the suburbs built from the 1970's through today though, they normally put everything underground.


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## goschio (Dec 2, 2002)

Germany:
nearly 100% underground. To be honest haven't seen a single electricity pole anywhere in a city yet. 

Australia:
Mostly wooden poles and ugly wires everywhere. The wires even cross the street.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

When I see it especially in The United States, Canada and Australia. Electricity runs underground in the city centres. But the suburban areas will have overhead poles.


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

XCRunner said:


> In Chicago? Through the 3rd rail of course!


just out of curiousity. not that I ever would. not that I ever should have asked this question but would it be possible to grill a steak by plopping it on the 3rd rail?


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## urbanfan89 (May 30, 2007)

luv2bebrown said:


> just out of curiousity. not that I ever would. not that I ever should have asked this question but would it be possible to grill a steak by plopping it on the 3rd rail?


If you touch the steak even with a stick you get fried.


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## LMCA1990 (Jun 18, 2005)

Mostly overhead cables and through underground cables in densely populated areas (downtown for example).


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

luv2bebrown said:


> just out of curiousity. not that I ever would. not that I ever should have asked this question but would it be possible to grill a steak by plopping it on the 3rd rail?


Well you have to make contact with the ground and the rail at the same time to "ground" the steak.

If you walked up and jumped up on the 3rd rail, you'd be fine. There are glass insulators that the 3rd rail sits upon, and this keeps the circuit from closing between the rail and the ground/something metal. In fact, on the elevated system, you could stand on the wooden ties that the track sits on and grab the 3rd rails all you want, nothing would happen as long as the wooden ties were dry and there wasn't any grime or rust buildup. If you have rubber sole shoes, you'd be fine as well. As long as you don't touch the rail with one hand, and the track support/the track itself with the other.

If you look sometimes, you will see workers sitting right on top of the 3rd rail, and not really care at all. You just have to be sure you don't touch the 3rd rail and something metal that connects to the ground. Then you'll complete the circuit and be fried. This is also why you see rats in the subway, and birds sitting on the 3rd rail and nothing happens. The rat would have to stand on the ground and reach up and touch the electrified portion of the 3rd rail. I've waited to see this sometimes, but they never stand up and touch the rail 

I would never touch the 3rd rail if it was raining, or obviously if you were in a subway portion where everything except the rail is automatically grounded. When it rains really hard, the workers all scramble off the elevated portions. This will actually create a low level short circuit across the entire system, because the water lets just enough of the electricity flow over the glass insulators and touch the metal supports. It's obviously a very low level of bleeding though, cause I've never heard of any concern at touching the metal support beams along the elevated portions during a rainstorm.


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## RafflesCity (Sep 11, 2002)

In Singapore, cables are required to be laid underground, beneath the roads, and are connected from substations or electrical boxes. Major buildings have their own in-built substations.


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## Rebasepoiss (Jan 6, 2007)

In Tallinn everything's underground, except the high voltage lines in the suburbs. In rural areas of Estonia, almost 100% is overground.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

From what I have noticed while walking recently, most of Hartford proper has underground cables, except for a few isolated areas. There are almost NO overhead wires downtown at all.


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## Xpressway (Dec 2, 2006)

Most of Santiago's electricity runs over poles.
only in the CBD's and new wealthy suburbs there's underground cabling.

Transmission lines (high voltage) run through towers and none go underground due to earthquakes.

There's like 1 blackout every month in fall/winter in my block because of tree branches falling or stupid trucks that bring down the cables at the closest intersection.


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## Justme (Sep 11, 2002)

WalkTheWorld said:


> For the vast majority of cities and villages it's all underground.
> 
> I think many are missing a point though. Underground lines do have an impact on city budget since power lines belong to power companies, but roads belong to the city *and in case of maintenace you have a lot of digging and repaving going on. Power companies will go for a cheap cut and cover and if you don't want your street to look like a patchwork quilt, your city will have to re-pave fairly frequently.* I've seen it happen when they buried boradband optical fiber lines. The aftermath of cut and cover looked crappy. The city council had to smoothen it out...at our expenses. No way of sueing the provider. The law says they must restore the roads to full functioning and safety. It does not state good-looks criteria.


This problem of works on underground cables is solved here in Germany by having paving stones instead of concrete footpaths. This way it is easy for parts to be dug up and later the stones are simply put back. When done like this you'd never know that they were dug up before. The photo below illustrates this and is similar whether in the city center or suburbs.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Justme said:


> This problem of works on underground cables is solved here in Germany by having paving stones instead of concrete footpaths. This way it is easy for parts to be dug up and later the stones are simply put back. When done like this you'd never know that they were dug up before. The photo below illustrates this and is similar whether in the city center or suburbs.


Not only that but paving stones help with urban storm water run off compared to impermiable concrete footpaths which funnel water into stormwater drains far too quickly. At least paving has gaps for the water to run into. 

I think the undergrounding of cables is the same reason that in England you find an awful lot of broken paving slabs being replaced following maintenance work.


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## WalkTheWorld (Aug 1, 2007)

Svartmetall said:


> Not only that but paving stones help with urban storm water run off compared to impermiable concrete footpaths which funnel water into stormwater drains far too quickly. At least paving has gaps for the water to run into.
> 
> I think the undergrounding of cables is the same reason that in England you find an awful lot of broken paving slabs being replaced following maintenance work.


yep, this is neat and being used more and more here.




















(gee no basker available at the time of shooting )

But unfortunately, in this country or at least in my part of this country, all utilities (poer, gas, optic finer and district heating/cooling) run under the road pavement, not under the footpaths. This is probably meant to get structural protection from heavier sewage pipes. You only have T connections from the road line to homes and you have to dig them only once, at the time of connection.

In the inner city, major cable repair lead to the replacement of asphalt with "filologically correct" stone cubes easier to replace in case of further work. In this case they also tend to gether utilities in one big concrete pipe to make future maintenance operations easier and them they lay down a thick reinforced concrete slab under the stone cube making them more stable. More recent developments need asphalt of course, but hey, ho. Underground cables anyway, might be more expensive but apart from any good-looks consideration provide superior protection from weather related power outages.


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