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Los Altos Hills members praise completed undergrounding demonstration but flag high costs and carrier delays
Summary
Committee members celebrated a long-running undergrounding demonstration project but said it proved costly and slow; they urged clearer utility coordination after Comcast cables delayed pole removal.
Los Altos Hills committee members celebrated the completion of a six-and-a-half-year undergrounding demonstration but warned residents the work was both costly and slow.
A council member recounted attending a ribbon-cutting and said the demonstration was chosen to test an approach before broader undergrounding. "Let's do a demonstration project," the council member said, adding the first phase "has been frightfully expensive, painfully slow, and extremely difficult to do." The speaker reported earlier estimates that undergrounding once cost "$140 a foot" in 2009.
The committee compared the town's experience with nearby Palo Alto, which members said completed similar work at lower expense and removed poles more quickly. A member noted Palo Alto's project included fiber and electricity undergrounding while some carriers, notably Comcast, remained on poles. "They had forgotten about Comcast," one member said, describing why poles could not be removed when other utilities completed their work.
Members emphasized the operational hurdles: coordinating design and construction with multiple carriers, securing conduit installation, and ensuring carriers move their lines into new conduit before poles are taken down. One member said crews on site warned residents not to touch the work and that carrier scheduling often caused delays.
Why it matters: undergrounding is proposed by some as a wildfire-risk reduction measure and can affect local aesthetics and property work. Committee members said the demonstration informs whether and how to scale future undergrounding efforts, but that cost and carrier coordination are central challenges that must be resolved before wider implementation.
The committee did not vote on a policy to expand undergrounding at this meeting. Members suggested continuing to document costs and contractor schedules and to coordinate more directly with carriers and city counterparts when planning future phases.
