Toronto The Well | 174.03m | 46s | RioCan | Hariri Pontarini

Is there a plan in the city to transitioning the electrical poles and wires to be underground? Some countries are starting to do that.. it would've been nice to do this simultaneously on this street.
 
Khaloody said:
Is there a plan in the city to transitioning the electrical poles and wires to be underground? Some countries are starting to do that.. it would've been nice to do this simultaneously on this street.
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Indeed it would have been nice and this topic has been frequently raised on UT in general and this thread in particular. Unfortunately Toronto, unlike Montreal, does not own and operate below-street conduit banks and they are installed and operated by the utilities. Sometimes, a developer will be forced to bury wires at the site plan phase of a development but often the City does not push for this and, of course, Toronto Hydro don't want to spend 'their $$" on such things. (In fairness they have to get permission to do stuff like that from their regulator). Some neighbourhood associations and BIAs press for this during major street rebuilding and have encouraged spending Section 37 funds on this kind of beautification - St Lawrence being a good example. (The Esplanade, Front East and Lower Sherbourne being recent examples.)
 
DSC said:
Indeed it would have been nice and this topic has been frequently raised on UT in general and this thread in particular. Unfortunately Toronto, unlike Montreal, does not own and operate below-street conduit banks and they are installed and operated by the utilities. Sometimes, a developer will be forced to bury wires at the site plan phase of a development but often the City does not push for this and, of course, Toronto Hydro don't want to spend 'their $$" on such things. (In fairness they have to get permission to do stuff like that from their regulator). Some neighbourhood associations and BIAs press for this during major street rebuilding and have encouraged spending Section 37 funds on this kind of beautification - St Lawrence being a good example. (The Esplanade, Front East and Lower Sherbourne being recent examples.)
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The city should make it a requirement for the developers to rough it all in when the sidewalks are being done. We do rough ins underground under any hard surface that we do for our clients, it's a cheap alternative for possible future work. IMO this would speed up removing the poles in the downtown areas.
 
Couple from @AlexBozikovic:

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daptive said:
this swerve to avoid the hydro pole is so Toronto it’s hilarious.
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It's comical. Whenever I have family and friends visiting from the UK, they usually have a lot of praise for the city, but one thing I hear over and over is, "What's with all the wires?" I have no answer.

I'd love to see some Toronto street scenes with all the overhead wires photoshopped out for side-by-side comparison. That would make an interesting UT thread!

Anyway, I'll stop before I'm reminded there's probably a better place to post this...
 
daptive said:
Love love love the interlocking pavers but this swerve to avoid the hydro pole is so Toronto it’s hilarious.

Finally put in time and effort for beautiful public space only to be foiled by some city decisions. It’s like the blue bin garbage pails in our new parks all over again.
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I actually thought it was quite 'artistic' of the streetscape folk to try to make the most of an obstruction that ought to be removed - though the pole does seem to have a streetlight so some sort of (wireless) pole is probably always going to be there.
 
DSC said:
I actually thought it was quite 'artistic' of the streetscape folk to try to make the most of an obstruction that ought to be removed - though the pole does seem to have a streetlight so some sort of (wireless) pole is probably always going to be there.
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Correct. The 'swerve' was / is an intentional design move on Cormier's part.
 
wmedia said:
It's comical. Whenever I have family and friends visiting from the UK, they usually have a lot of praise for the city, but one thing I hear over and over is, "What's with all the wires?" I have no answer.
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18 cents/kwh vs 34 cents/kwh in London.

Lots of things contribute to that, but ultimately above-ground electrical is much cheaper than underground both to install and maintain.
 
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