You are reading

Con Edison to Move Power Lines in Middle Village Underground in $4 Million Pilot Program

Power lines passing through tree branches on Juniper Valley Road (Google Maps)

Sept. 17, 2021 By Allie Griffin

Con Edison has started a $4 million pilot program in Middle Village that involves moving overhead power lines below ground — as a means to prevent future outages.

The energy company announced the program during a Community Board 5 meeting Tuesday and said that it had started work on the project called the “Juniper Valley Undergrounding Pilot.”

Workers are in the process of moving overhead wires below ground along sections of Juniper Valley Road and 77th Street in a residential area in Middle Village.

Pilot area (Con Edison)

Con Edison selected the pilot area due to the large number of outages in that section of Queens. There have been 19 total outages in the area since 2012 — affecting 8,970 customers.

The number of outages is due in part to the high density of trees along Juniper Valley Boulevard. Tree branches knocking into the wires during storms have caused multiple power outages in the past, Con Edison officials said.

Moving the lines underground would prevent such outages and make the electrical system more resilient to withstand future, more powerful storms.

“The idea here is to make sure that our system is more reliable,” Richard David, Con Edison’s director of Queens community affairs, said the community board meeting.

The pilot involves removing three overhead transformers and nearly 40 spans of overhead wire. A new underground transformer and overhead backup transformer will replace the old utilities.

Crews have already begun digging along 65th Drive to prepare for the underground wires. They will also install 15 manholes along the underground system.

The pilot will bring the power supply of 152 customers underground, according to Con Edison.

“We are very excited about this project,” David said. “We are inviting our neighbors to work with Con Edison to achieve success here.”

Council Member Holden, in a statement he submitted to Community Board 5, called the pilot “a welcome relief for residents in that area.”

Holden co-sponsored legislation last year to require the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability to conduct a study on the feasibility of moving overhead power lines underground.

“In New York City Council, I will continue to advocate for a transition from overhead to underground wiring so that my constituents suffer fewer unnecessary power outages,” he said as part of the statement to the community board.

Con Edison is conducting similar pilot programs in Staten Island and Westchester as well.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

One Comment

Click for Comments 

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Ridgewood mother and daughter arrested for attacking woman over parking spot: NYPD

A Ridgewood mother and daughter were arrested Monday after they ambushed a young Black woman who tried to park her car in a spot in front of their apartment building that they frequently cordon off with garbage cans and traffic cones.

A family friend was standing at the northeast corner of Onderdonk Avenue and Putnam Avenue at around 7:30 p.m. when the 21-year-old Jada McPherson tried to park her car in the spot. The man placed a garbage can in her way. She drove off and circled the block multiple times. She tried to pull into the same spot one more time, but the man tried to stop her again. McPherson got out of her car to confront him, and an argument ensued.

Man in his 50s sought for exposing himself to 13-year-old on E train in Forest Hills: NYPD

Police from the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills and Transit District 20 are looking for a suspect who allegedly flashed a 13-year-old girl on a Queens subway train last month.

The victim was riding a southbound E train approaching the Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike station at around 1 p.m. on Monday, June 30, when she saw a stranger exposing himself to her, police said Wednesday. The perpetrator ran off the train at the Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike station and fled in an unknown direction. The youngster was not injured during her encounter with the stranger.