Malibu Canyon Power Poles Replaced, 11 Years After Fire
Written by 991KBU on April 4, 2018
Four years after it was supposed to be finished …. a coalition of electric and wireless communications companies has finished converting the spindly wooden power poles in Malibu Canyon into steel poles.
Southern California Edison announced yesterday that the project is done.
82 wooden poles removed.
65 steel poles installed.
The project was ordered because one of those wooden poles fell over in 2007 … triggering the Malibu Canyon Fire … which cost 500 million dollars in damage and firefighting costs.
Because three cellphone companies overloaded the poles … the state ordered them to fix Malibu Canyon’s poles as penance.
But the project was much bigger than the cell companies could handle … it was delayed for years … and finally Southern California Edison took over management.
Undergrounding the power lines would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars …. the roadbed is on solid rock and would have to be dynamited for three miles to dig trenches for that.
The project is done … the 66 kilovolt supply line to Malibu is now on steel poles for about a third of the way between the 101 and the coast.
Edison notes that the massive work … most of it done overnight … was accomplished safely, with no injuries reported.
