Utility Poles Finally Gone from Undergrounding Area

Nearly two years after the undergrounding project began, the last remaining utility cables and poles in the Piedmont Hills district were taken down last month shortly before the June 30 deadline.

“That project is completed,” said Interim Public Works Director Chester Nakahara. “All the concrete has been removed and the area has been patched.”

The 2009 project was championed by a group of Piedmont Hills residents concerned about the aesthetics and dangers of overhanging wires. The residents had agreed to finance the entire project.

But the project accumulated more than $2 million in overruns after workers encountered bedrock while digging trenches. The city was left to foot the hefty bill.

City Council formed an audit subcommittee to draw up a report examining what went wrong in the handling of the project. The report will also contain recommendations on how the city can avoid another undergrounding debacle in the future.

The three members of the subcommittee presented their draft sections Jan. 26, but there is no word on when the final report will be released. A draft of the final report was posted on the city website Thursday, but the document contains no new information.

“There’s been no editing, it’s simply the combination of the three reports that came out in January,” said Interim City Clerk John Tulloch.

Before the poles could be taken down, a number of utilities had to first remove their phone, cable TV, internet and electric wires.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company was the first utility to remove its cables. The company completed its work in December, according to PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian.

After removing its wires, located near the top of the poles, PG&E cut the poles down to the next tier of wires. Comcast and AT&T followed suit, removing cables and cutting the poles. In June, AT&T removed what was left of the poles.

“It was [AT&T’s] duty, as the last man standing, to remove the poles,” Nakahara said.