Undergrounding wires in North Hempstead could cost $13.4M, says consultant
A consultant estimates it would cost up to $13.4 million to bury high-voltage power lines between Great Neck and Port Washington, an expense North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth wants PSEG Long Island to pay.
The town in April authorized paying Power Cable Consultants of upstate Ballston Spa a maximum of $25,000 to study the feasibility of burying the wires that PSEG recently installed over more than 200 80-foot-tall poles.
The poles replaced ones nearly half the size and outraged community members who said they were not informed about the project and considered the new poles unsightly.
Utility officials said the new poles were needed before June to ensure reliability and more resiliency to storms.
The estimate, which Power Cable Consultants released this week in a 23-page report, is lower than PSEG's tally of up to $24 million for undergrounding the wires over the roughly 4-mile stretch.
PSEG spokesman Jeffrey Weir reiterated the utility's stance that it would consider burying the wires, if the town pays.
Bosworth said in an interview Tuesday that the town cannot afford the project. "We don't have that kind of money," she said. "In a tax cap world, it's not reasonable to expect the town to take on the cost of doing that.
"This is a project done by PSEG, which is a private utility company under the auspices of the state -- how is it now that ratepayers should bear the cost or the town bear the cost?"
Weir said PSEG "stands by their initial conservative estimates. Pending an extensive engineering assessment, we firmly believe an estimate of $4 to 6 million a mile is correct."
The state Public Service Commission has said PSEG estimates are consistent with their figures for burying the wires.
"We stand by our belief that undergrounding for aesthetic purposes should not be on the backs of the rest of the Long Island ratepayers," Weir said. "We stand by our offer to Supervisor Bosworth to underground the new transmission line, should they be able to come up with an appropriate funding mechanism that doesn't burden the rest of the Long Island ratepayers."
Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.
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