Supervisors hold wide-ranging hearing on San Francisco utility poles, inspections and undergrounding

The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee on July 25 held a multi-agency hearing into utility pole attachments, inspection practices, abandoned wiring, and options and financing for undergrounding overhead utilities in San Francisco.

Supervisor (Feuer), who sponsored the hearing, told the committee she had received numerous constituent complaints about “spaghetti webs” of wires on poles across the city and asked agencies to explain practices for inspection, attachment and removal. "As we talk about overhead wires, it is also helpful that we consider this in the context of this vision for underground utilities," she said.

Lee Palmer, Director of the California Public Utilities Commission Safety and Enforcement Division, described the CPUC role: SED audits utilities for compliance with CPUC General Orders — including GO 95 (overhead construction and maintenance) and GO 165 (inspection requirements) — and investigates reportable incidents (fatality/hospitalization, $50,000+ property damage, or significant public attention). Palmer said CPUC does not maintain a centralized statewide map of about 5,000,000 poles; utilities keep individual inventories. He added the CPUC has an open proceeding about pole mapping and access and…