Is it just me or are all labour ministers trying to look like they give a crap about us in past few days.cant wait till they start calling to my door looking for votes. I’ll wake the dead with how loud I’ll be telling them to F off

One of those monstrosities is planned for lands behind my home house, only problem is, the only access is a private road…….owned by yours truly………this is gonna be good! :)

@ Pete. Don’t worry , their overdue kicking is on it’s way.

No problem. Compulsory purchase order. Ya hardly think your private road is first time in history of the state that infrastructure development they came across this.

One is going up few km from where I grew up. Welcome it. Builds for the future.

Every damn one of them are about as much use as a one legged man in an arse kicking competition, corrupt, the whole fecking lot of them.
I’d love to see a “None of the above” option included on the ballot paper in the next general election so that we could get rid of every one of these useless, corrupt drains on society and bar them from ever running again.

Anyone up for a bit of cronyism and/or nepotism these days?

Gawd bless Fine Gael and Labour – they have gone so far out of their way not to act like Fianna Fail and the Greens previously.
…Yes – I’m being sarcastic!

Nothing has changed in fact from the previous government to this one – different spelling of party names – but still same disgusting antics.

Funnyman. That’s pure nonsense, lots of evidence to show that undergrounding is cheaper in the long run.

http://retasite.wordpress.com/burying-high-voltage-lines/

Info from Canadian website.

Benefits of Underground Lines:

In summary, when compared with overhead or above-ground lines, buried high voltage power lines:

eliminate the electrical field through shielding and significantly reduce the magnetic field through phase cancellation,
reduce the negative health impacts of overhead line electromagnetic fields (EMFs) to almost zero,
eliminate the negative health impacts of the overhead line corona effect,
are safer because they can’t electrocute people or animals,
eliminate EMFs and stray voltage that negatively affect livestock,
do not negatively impact agricultural crop production,
are safer because buried lines don’t fall over in hurricanes, tornadoes, other high wind storms or ice storms,
are not affected by solar storms,
do not start wildfires nor are they affected by fires,
are safer because helicopters, airplanes and hot air balloons can’t crash into them,
do not cause nearby pipeline corrosion or hazardous induced currents in pipelines,
do not lower adjacent property values,
are not an eyesore,
do not buzz or hum,
do not negatively affect tourism,
do not negatively affect the environment,
do not kill millions of birds annually through collision,
are safer because they are not susceptible to terrorist attacks,
are more reliable,
have lower maintenance costs,
are more efficient and have lower transmission loss costs, and
can be buried for almost the same capital cost as overhead lines.

Just to be clear, undergrounding is not much more expensive than overhead when laying new lines, which this project is. It is more expensive when replacing lines, which this isn’t!

When you put it like that….

Costs of Underground Lines:

With regard to the cost of burying high voltage power lines, based on RETA’s research, expert testimony provided at the AUC hearing on the proposed Heartland Transmission Project, and many discussions with underground cable experts in Europe:

The capital cost of burying these lines is not 4 to 20 times the cost of building overhead lines, as suggested by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), Alberta Energy and transmission facility owners in Alberta (e.g., AltaLink, ATCO Electric, EPCOR).
For example, expert testimony at the April and May 2011 Heartland AUC hearing indicates that the capital cost of a partially buried Heartland double circuit 500 kilovolt line (i.e., 20 of 66 kilometres would be buried) is only about 15% higher than AltaLink’s and EPCOR’s $580 million estimated cost of an entirely above-ground Heartland line. This is a rounding error within the electricity transmission industry, and well within AltaLink’s and EPCOR’s Heartland Transmission Project contingency budget.
Maintenance costs of buried high voltage power lines are substantially lower than for overhead lines, and this is because underground lines are not subject to tornadoes and other high wind storms, ice storms, general weather deterioration, birds colliding with lines and knocking the power out, etc. For example, the 40-kilometre 500kV line buried in Tokyo in 2000 has had zero maintenance issues.

Examples of Underground Lines:

When asked about burying high voltage power lines, many electricity transmission companies will respond, “It hasn’t been done before” or “The technology hasn’t been sufficiently developed” or “You can’t successfully bury higher voltage transmission lines such as 500 kilovolt or 400 kilovolt lines”. None of these responses is true.

The fact is there are thousands of examples of successfully buried 240 kilovolt transmission lines and lines of lower voltage. Many cities and towns around the world have many miles and kilometres of buried high voltage lines, especially in densely populated and “downtown” areas.

As transmission companies look to build higher voltage lines – 500kV and 400kV – more and more residents, businesses and governments are calling for these lines to be buried because the higher voltage towers and lines are usually much taller and more unsightly, and hence have increased negative impacts. There are many examples of successfully buried 500kV and 400kV lines. This list includes just a few of the many successfully buried 500kV lines, and this list includes just a few of the many successfully buried 400kV lines. For technical details of another successfully buried 40-kilometre-long 500kV line in Tokyo see Yonemoto et al. 2003.

These cost comparisons fail to factor in the cost of building a road infrastructure to carry the weight of vehicles during installation and repair, the jointing bays which are basically concrete bunkers big enough for two adults to work, located at every join. The EMF argument is invalid as there is no I repeat no scientific evidence of adverse health effects from power lines, there is a statistical connection in one study out of several thousand and that study failed to look at other environmental factors for the statistical connection. The disruption caused repairing a fault in an underground cable is considerably higher than an overhead cable, indeed live line working allows repairs in overhead cables without even switching the power off. Pylons are a necessity of modern living and while not the most beautiful of things are common through out the developed world.

The BMJ (British Medical Journal) disagrees with you & Eirgrid & has shown a link between powerlines & increased rates of cancer.

Underground is the only acceptable option.

I assume you are referring to the childhood leukaemia study? That is the one i referred to also, the authors of that study admitted they had not considered social or economic factors which may well have had a greater bearing on the results. Under-grounding is desirable but we will all have to pay the increased costs through levies on domestic electricity charges etc.

Even the abstract of that paper states that “There is no accepted biological mechanism to explain the epidemiological results; indeed, the relation may be due to chance or confounding.” Correlation does not equal causation. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/false-cause

Ah yes it is , for underground you have to Dig a trench for the conduit , lay the conduit back fill the trench , rope the conduit , pull the cable , a joint bay every 500m , joint the cables . This takes a huge amount if work requiring new access roads , spoil dumps etc causing a lot if damage to the surrounding flora and fauna . Then all this has to be restored at huge cost . Add to that underground cable is insulated copper whereas overheads are exposed aluminium and you can really see the difference . If a high voltage cable develops a fault underground , there is a lot of work involved in exposing and repairing it compared to overheads .

I think the underground cables have to be oil cooled as well whereas the ones on pylons are cooled by the air and don’t get as hot because they are further apart.

They don’t use oil filled much anymore Anne , they run each phase in a seperate conduit . This is what I do for a living .

Thanks John, just been Googling it instead of sleeping. :-(

I’m actually working on 132kv undergrounds this very minute in sunny Australia

Old Pat Rabbitte loves old Pat Rabbitte as much as young Pat loved young Pat, never changed ,

The only thing that changed was public perception, Frank?

I knew Young Pat Rabbitte when we worked together at USI. I haven’t met him for years but Young Pat Rabbitte may have difficulty supporting Old Pat Rabbitte.

and Pat Rabbitte grew into Fat Rabbit