It’s become really expensive to bury power lines underground in San Diego. But, until recently, it wasn’t clear where that work was actually being done.
Now, the city has a map for that. Though San Diego’s been slowly burying power lines since 1970, it only started distributing the work equally among city council districts in 2002. Then, in 2021 under a new deal cut with the city’s monopoly power grid builder, San Diego Gas & Electric, the city said power line burial should be prioritized in communities of concern (older and poorer communities) and areas with a higher risk of wildfire.
It’s clear by looking at the new undergrounding map that areas of town which don’t match this criterion got their power lines buried first. That includes the plush, coastal community of La Jolla, the University of California-San Diego, Shelter Island at the Point Loma waterfront and half of downtown.
San Diego’s goal is to bury every residential line in the city. They’ve done 400 miles so far. There’s another 1,000 to go. Costs for these projects have been soaring, with at least one example exceeding its price estimate by 80 percent, according to a new audit.
During a recent presentation by city staff on the undergrounding program at a City Council Environment Committee meeting, San Diego Council President Sean Elo-Rivera – who represents part of southeastern San Diego and some of the city’s poorer areas – questioned the growing costs.
“I’m curious to what extent we’re stopping to pause and wonder is this really what the community would choose to have their money go toward if given the choice?” Elo-Rivera said.
“We get calls on a daily basis, asking, begging for us to underground communities,” said Jennifer Reynolds, the city’s undergrounding program coordinator.
Mayor Todd Gloria’s policy advisor, Randy Wilde, added that undergrounding allows the city to make other improvements to roads at the same time – but that also adds to the costs.
Reynolds said San Diego is doing more power line undergrounding than any other municipality in California. That’s a bit of a shocker since other utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric in northern California recently announced plans to bury 10,000 miles of power lines over the next decade.
Communities want to bury power lines underground for a multitude of reasons. If power lines are underground, they won’t be damaged by storms, fall on trees and potentially spark fires and power outages. It’s also an aesthetics thing — some residents just don’t like the look of cables hanging high in the air over sidewalks.
In any event, anyone who pays a power bill in the city of San Diego also pays to bury existing power lines underground. The city charges SDG&E the fee, and the utility company passes that fee on to its customers.
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that undergrounding occurred at the Shelter Island portion of the Point Loma waterfront. The City of San Diego also later clarified that their district-based distribution of projects began in 2002, not in 2018.
So?
Pointless article. Complaining who got what when.
“I’m curious to what extent we’re stopping to pause and wonder is this really what the community would choose to have their money go toward if given the choice?” Elo-Rivera said.
See infrastructure.
What’s funny is after our undergrounding, the city tried to walk away from repairing the roads, saying they were adequate. Took a year to get them to fix it right.
We are seeing all sorts of improvements because it is an election year. Once that is over, all these improvements will come to a screeching halt.
I live in City Heights near Hoover High. Our power lines were buried a couple of years ago. I gotta say it was a relatively painless process. SDG&E issued a notice of when it was going to happen. The local crews kept us informed of when our driveway to the apartments would be dug up and when the power would have to be shut off and for how long.
The only issue is that the crews left a couple of power poles that are really hard to get to. The problem is that eventually those poles will rot and fall. When they do, if SDG&E is lucky, they will just take out someone’s fence. If they are not lucky, someone will get hurt.
Who cares?
LOL! The “Point Loma Waterfront”…The map indicates they’ve down work from Shelter Island to the Embarcadero. So essentially in coordination with the Port Authority they’ve under grounded along the perimeter of the San Diego Bay. Drive down Rosecrans, visit Point Loma, you’ll notice no power lines have been placed underground. Try seeing where the facts take you rather than determining you’re viewpoint and then molding the information to your desired outcome.
backroom deals over streets? who is really using bandwith for that? try development projects, contracts, city jobs…
It’s not just the fact that undergrounding is happening in wealthier neighborhoods, it’s HOW it’s happening. Take a drive around Mission Hills and tell me where the transformer boxes are – you won’t see them because they put everything underground or out of sight. Now drive around Talmadge, or down Meade Avenue in Normal Heights and check out the giant above-ground utility boxes that have been placed in front of people’s homes, blocking front entryways, paths, and exits from cars. There are an average of 3 boxes (plus 2-4 3ft tall concrete ballasts to protect them) for every 3 houses, so either you get 3 or you get one, but you will likely get something and you do not have a say where on your property the box will go. Why are the poorer neighborhoods getting unsightly, above-ground boxes that are magnets for graffiti while the wealthier neighborhoods have complete undergrounding and hidden utilities? That’s the bigger story here.
So you’re complaining undergrounding is happening in wealthier neighborhoods and they hide the boxes better than unwealthier ones? Ahhhh. First off, you can’t just put a box anywhere. It depends on what’s under the street to begin with. Second, it undermines the author’s second article, accusing wealthier neighborhoods get preferential treatment, by your statement. There are boxes for phone, cable, and electrical while dealing with water as well. LOL
This is a government program that has been charging customers for undergrounding service for over 60 years. Complaining about the priorization of one area over another is a waste of time. There is no priority at all. The city and sdge are taking your money and prioritizing it for unrelated things that keep their organization leaders happy.
Earlier than 1970. My ex husband worked in the underground design Dept of SDG&E from 1965 to retirement. Supposedly all of San Diego was to be finished putting above ground utilities under ground decades ago.
I wonder if Sean Elo has ever considered that property owners in the wealthiest parts of San Diego (Carmel Valley, Rancho Penasquitos, Rancho Bernardo, Scripps Ranch, Tierra Santa, the newer portions of La Jolla. etc.) live in areas that were developed with underground utilities. But people in these areas pay the same surcharge on their electricity bills to pay to underground the utilities in older, usually poorer, parts of the city. So they pay even though they will never see any benefit from the surcharge.
I think the surcharge is a good thing, though there are good reasons to question the progress the city and SDG&E have made on undergrounding. It just seems odd to question the social justice of a program in which the wealthier half of the city is paying to underground the utilities in the older, poorer half of the city.
Excellent point, Bart.
Who pays the most taxes?
Well when they buried the lines on my street in OB about 20 years ago they charged each property owner $1500 to run the line up to their house, a fee thats probably doubled or tripled by now.
Do you think all the owners in the poor parts of town have that kind if extra money laying around?
A young man and cyclist was killed last week, one week way from graduating high school.
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/national-city-family-honors-teen-bicyclist-fatally-hit-by-car-on-way-to-school/3530069/
I can’t help but notice that the shadow from the overhead power lines in the intersection where he was killed is visually distracting.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.6701011,-117.0932331,3a,75y,245.62h,66.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7gckDtuMZg5SF-ykaJ5aYw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu
Turn the street view around 180 degrees to see how bad the trees’ shadows are. They are by far the worst offender, but the long lines certainly couldn’t have helped. A cyclist could certainly get lost in such shadows and the shadows of the periodic poles and long stretches of line certainly won’t help the driver notice them or pedestrians.
This street view was captured relatively recently in Dec 2022 around noon with the sun overhead. If such an accident can happen in June with a smaller shadow impact, I certainly would not like the risk to be increased with overhead power lines in December.
I notice that National City is a blank spot missing in the screenshot of the map. Do they have an agreement with SDGE for undergrounding?