RE: Top three things you'd change about Indy
"transmission lines. Can anybody explain why electrical wires in most of the US are still not in the ground? Too expensive is a bad excuse since every storm or tornado multiply the cost of fixing those lines while leaving people suffering for days or weeks."
The environmental impact is great if they're buried. The cost to build IS one problem, but the cost to maintain and the cost to repair are just as big of factors. Concrete vaults have to be built intermittently to maintain splices and terminations. Also, the length of time it would take to repair is much greater if the lines are buried.
Not only do they have to be buried, they have to be encased, and they have to be sealed watertight, and they have to be filled with pressurized gases or fluids or be a solid dielectric polyethylene. The environmental impact of a leak or rupture could be catastrophic. The solid dielectric polyethylene would be the easiest to maintain and the safest, but, of course, it's made from oil. And the price, demand, and environmental impacts of this non renewable resource are well known, so I won't go into that.
All that aside, undergrounds lines sure are much better aesthetically... but is it worth it?

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