No powerlines in Europe? Really?

[rahikumar]

Right now there is a power outage in a couple of neighborhoods in San Francisco (underground transformer failed). Someone posted the following comment to the news story:

Nowhere in Europe, for example, do you see these ugly powerlines hanging from tree to tree or pole to pole like it is the case here in SF.

Is there any truth to this? I have never been out of the US, so I don't know how you dirty foreigners do things.

Thanks

_______________
artemide
RYA Powerboat Level 2



________________

artemide
RYA Powerboat Level 2

[fragged8]

nah it bull .. well mostly .

i'm in the UK and we have a huge one right over our yacht club,
I had a job once treating the wooden electricity poles across fields
with preservative. I quite enjoyed doing that as it was outside and we got
to have nice long walks heheh

what we don't really have is the street by street poles for electricity
like you guys have, they are mostly underground in towns and cities.

we do have poles for telephone lines in most places.




I've been to most places in Europe and it does vary from country to country
eg Germany will be mostly underground but with the huge pylons outside towns
but Greece a fairly well poled up > :-)  i'm not sure about Poland though heheh

Greece
http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photos-images/1815R-59185

Germany
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mergemind/220029567/in/set-72157604588077884
http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photos-images/1848-186978

France
http://www.visualphotos.com/image/2x4716733/french_warning_sign_on_a_power_pole_in_the_open

[Mike8560]

That your pop in laws bayliner. Rich?
My last mone the community had all underground wires that was nice after hurricane Charley we still had power as the leads came from away from the storm.
I did though. Once installing a fence I had to get all the underground line marked fro
dig safe thee was a rite of way for the underground lines  anyway I was downtown the last two poles and I had a power auger  and was susposed to be 3' down with no cement well they were under a big ficus tree with allot of roots a nosey neighbor came over to see what I was doing  watching. I was down about 2' and hit somthing I thought it was a root and with this guy watching I gave it what for and broke past the root to 3'  this was a Saturday. That Monday I cane home to dime telephone triluck all out back with a big hole and part of my fence out.  Seems I hit a fiber optic  cable and put out about 600 customers.   Lousey part was that this wire was not mark to I thought I was ok well I was 1 day after my digsafe tome limit ran out.  I didn't know  well the phone co was nice a. Split the bill withb e I ended up paying about. $600

[kodydog]

Yikes Mike! I've heard splicing those fiber optic cables is expensive. Couldn't you just say, I don't know how that hole got there? ;)

I had them come out and mark the power and phone line. I was digging one hole and hit some yellow tape marked caution power line. Guess they missed that one.

[sofadoc]

Well, they shouldn't need as much power. Because when I visited there, apparently ice machines hadn't even been invented yet.

Nowhere in Europe, for example, do you see these ugly powerlines hanging from tree to tree or pole to pole like it is the case here in SF.

Is there any truth to this? I have never been out of the US, so I don't know how you dirty foreigners do things.

[fragged8]

heh ice machine Doc :-)
it's cold enough here even in the summer not to need them heh

OOps big bill Mike, my uncle whos dead now dug into a high voltage
cable when he was working on the highways, probably 32KVA
and i nearly killed him. They were told it was turned off but he found out otherwise.
He never worked again after that.

Yes that Bayliner is my step dads, i tie up right behind him.

[Darren Henry]

I had a job once treating the wooden electricity poles across fields

Are wooden poles still used over there? I had been told that Europe ( and I assumed the UK also) had phased them out for concrete.

[fragged8]

I don't really see concrete poles here,
either wood poles for telephone

or steel pylons for electricity

[Grebo]

My Dad used to be a 'pole tester' for Dorset, Hampshire possibly Somerset in the south of England, his entire job was checking the condition of all the wooden poles. Not sure exactly what he did, probably some kind of tiny core test or something, he would put his little tag on each pole with his ID & the date, report in any that he condemned & recorded any that needed keeping an eye on. I remember him telling me that some of them were really old & still in great condition &  the newer one's were not pretreated properly & so didn't last very long at all.


BTW we have mainly concrete over here...

Suzi

[R.A.F. CaNvAs]

Nope , not seen any round here either...
Must be terrible having the infrastructure hanging in the sky.
You'll tell me next that you have seen transformers nailed to wooden poles too ,
Not a sub station in sight, But I'm not phased by that  !  ::)

[fragged8]

what i want to know Raf is why you are hanging
around in the corners of fields ? :-)

[PDQ]

what i want to know Raf is why you are hanging
around in the corners of fields ? :-)

Where he comes from men are men and the sheep are nervous.  :D