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Alliant puts up $1.25M for burying power lines
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · April 23, 2015
Alliant Energy plans to spend $1.25 million this year to bury about 40 percent of its pole-to-pole power lines in West Branch.
To do that, the company began in January sending letters to about 70 property owners asking for easements to dig in yards or to bore underneath, Alliant spokesman Justin Foss said.
Most of the lines will be buried about three to six feet under ground, Foss said, depending on terrain. The contractor will bore as much as possible, he said, and dig trenches only when necessary.
The easement agreements offer to pay $1 and state that Alliant will put back anything disturbed by the work.
The company hopes to reduce time and money spent on trimming trees to keep lines free of obstructions, he said.
Burying lines is part of a $2.2 million project in the area that includes about $950,000 to rebuild part of the network in the rural areas, Foss said.
Alliant is not burying electric lines that reach from poles to houses, but homeowners can pay to have that done, he said.
“In a lot of smaller communities and older areas, there were no easements -- things were built with a handshake,” the spokesman said. “Now as we go back and update older equipment, we have to make it a uniform process.”
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