Undergrounding Questions Addressed by Councilmember Park

By Laurel Busby

News & Information Editor

City Councilmember Traci Park addressed rumors about the undergrounding of electrical wires potentially not happening or taking a decade at an Aug. 7 virtual meeting.

The meeting, organized in concert with the Pacific Palisades Community Council, was attended by more than 400 people. Park began by introducing her recovery vision, which she said should be community-led and government-supported with a goal of maintaining the character of the community, while simultaneously improving emergency preparedness and modernizing infrastructure. Then, representatives from AECOM, the company hired by the city to help coordinate the rebuilding, shared their goals of providing roadmaps for logistics/traffic, fire protection, and infrastructure restoration/modernization.

Part of the infrastructure improvements would include undergrounding electricity, according to Park, and the question-and-answer section brought up passionate questions and concerns about the topic.

One resident insisted that the stream of recent pole replacements and additions were an unnecessary expenditure, while another mentioned discussing the pole replacements with workers who described a long timeline.

“You are not the first person to mention that you've heard from workers on the ground that it would take 10 years to get [undergrounding] done,” Councilwoman Traci Park responded. “I've had other people tell me they've heard from workers … that it was not happening at all. Just to clarify, DWP has committed to doing the undergrounding. They have already begun trenching in many neighborhoods. They have already begun a lot of the work around that. One of the big issues, in my view, is going to be convincing comms [communications] to come underground as well. And so, there is ongoing work about coordinating those efforts.”

She mentioned LADWP’s presentation at a July 2 Town Hall at which LADWP representatives shared their current undergrounding plans with the community. At that meeting, LADWP representative David Hanson discussed the pole installation projects.

 “Essentially, we can't come in and set temporary poles when we rebuild our system,” he said. “It's got to be built to permanent standards. It's just part of the regulatory requirements. So, we refer to it as a temporary restoration, but in actuality, it'll look very similar to permanent construction because it has to be built that way.”

Park mentioned an upcoming Town Hall with LADWP, which has now been scheduled for Aug. 27 from 5-6:30 p.m. on Zoom, and she encouraged people to ask questions there too. She noted that this meeting would focus more on builders, who have questions about the technical requirements, connections, and timing of the undergrounding system. Park also shared a few of the difficulties LADWP has been encountering.

“There are some places that because of the challenging terrain, undergrounding may not be feasible,” Park said. “We are also going to probably have to work through some complicated new questions about where and how the infrastructure … may need to be placed—issues related to easements and rights of entry. But I think that with the overwhelming desire to get this done, I don't think those issues will ultimately be a problem that prevents us from doing it, and I don't think that it is necessarily going to be a 10-year project, although it will be an ongoing multi-year project.”

The expense that residents might have to shoulder was another question.

 “I don't know when they're going to have an itemized cost for it,” Park said. “I don't know that they're even that far along.”