9 thoughts on “Ice Building Up on Power Lines”

  1. Still have internet but the freezing rain we had in Delaware this morning seems to have taken out our satellite TV. We didn’t lose a minutes service during Snowpocalypse I. Time to watch all those episodes of Burn Notice I’ve been building up on the DVR.

  2. “Do they really string fiber optic lines on telephone poles?”
    Well, if you are living in an area where all of the utilities are coming in via poles, why would Verizon tear up the streets and everyone’s yards to bring the fiber in buried?

    (I work for Verizon in Levittown, and install FiOS)

    My apartment complex lost power for about 12 hours or so last night. It was just a bit chilly this morning.

  3. @6
    I realize there are reasons why telephone poles are used but thought that fiber lines are trenched as that is what I normally observe here in Phoenix, Arizona. I imagine that trenched cabling increases the cost up front but might reduce the overall cost via reduced maintenance costs over time.

    Chacun à son goût.

    1. Thane, as we watching the ice-covered lines swing wildly in the wind, the FiOS cable was the most sturdy of them all. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t even think it collected any ice. All of the other lines still have at least one or two big chunks on them, even after a day in the sun.

  4. Trenched lines are a bitch to maintain, and an even bigger bitch to replace, not to mention vastly more expensive to put in.

    And they’re more vulnerable to backhoe fade; and it takes longer and is more expensive to repair when it happens.

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