Pacific Gas and Electric installing underground lines to cut wildfire risk, power outages
Pacific Gas and Electric executives announced they will send crews to west Cottonwood and Happy Valley to install undergrounding power lines throughout 2023.
That could mean traffic controls and some waits and detours for motorists, limited street parking at times for residents.
But placing the lines underground will reduce the risk the utility company’s equipment could spark wildfires, and will increase the power grid's reliability, according to a company announcement issued Tuesday. Undergrounding can cut “risk of ignitions along undergrounded circuits by 99%, reduce annual spending on temporary repairs and other recurring costs such as vegetation management; and curb the need for wildfire safety-related power outages."
In Shasta County, PG&E plans to install 77 miles of underground power lines this year, PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said.
The company's work schedule through 2023 covers the following areas:
Work is already underway along West Anderson Drive and Cambridge Road, four miles southwest of central Anderson.
At the end of April or in early May, crews will start installing power lines on Gas Point Road, between Rancho Estates and Happy Valley roads ― including roads to the north of Gas Point Road.
Also this spring, crews will start digging trenches and boring spaces for 32 miles of new underground conduit and power lines in west Anderson in Happy Valley; beginning with Happy Valley Road between Shawn Drive and Olinda Road.
Later this year, contracted crews plan to work along Olinda Road, Dover Drive, Newcastle Drive and other roads off Olinda. After the new underground lines are working, crews will remove the above-ground lines now in place, he said.
When PG&E customers can expect crews to be working
Until then, motorists driving in these areas should watch for one-way traffic controls, "detours and brief traffic delays," according to the announcement. People may have trouble finding parking places on streets near construction.
Customers living on streets slated for underground lines received, or will receive, a letter or automated phone call letting them know when work will start, Moreno said.
“Crews will deliberately work small sections at a time to have minimal impact” on traffic and residents, according to the announcement.
Workers will be on site from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, except holidays and if weather permits, according to the announcement.
PG&E executives hope to wrap up the projects by Dec. 31, Moreno said.
“We’ve also been doing underground projects in Keswick, Palo Cedro and east Redding," Moreno said.
“Undergrounding” power lines “is one of several approaches PG&E is taking to re-engineer the grid to enhance reliability and build resilience,” the utility’s North Valley/Sierra Region Vice President Joe Wilson said in the announcement.
More: Shasta County reaches settlement in Dixie Fire; heads to court over Zogg Fire
“In the late 1960s, California passed a law that (required) developers to build underground utilities for virtually all constructions," Moreno said.
In 2021, PG&E executives launched a plan to place underground 10,000 miles of distribution power lines in areas at high risk for fires that still had aboveground power lines constructed before that time.
The company faced, and continues to face, numerous court cases involving counties, towns and organizations alleging the utility’s above-ground equipment caused multiple devastating wildfires in Northern California. These include the 2020 Zogg Fire that caused the death of four people and devastated the towns of Igo and Ono in Shasta County; the November, 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed most of Paradise and surrounding communities in Butte County; and the massive 2021 Dixie Fire that burned 963,309 acres in Shasta, Tehama, Lassen, Butte and Plumas counties.
More: Cal Fire sues PG&E to recover costs of fighting Shasta County's Zogg Fire
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: PG&E undergrounds lines in Shasta County to cut fire, power outage risk
