362 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



by equipment suppliers, by the utility engineers who are looking 

 for new methods, by work with the land developers, with contractors 

 and, in our own case, with telephone companies for sharing of costs. 

 We have been able to achieve this reduction in cost and I am sure 

 that we can make further improvement, so that in the very near 

 future we can have underground service to new residential develop- 

 ments competitive in cost with overhead service because of the 

 progress that has been made in driving down costs. Last year in 

 our own Chicago area, a little better than 50 percent of all the new 

 residential subdivisions went in with underground service. 



If you are talking about conversion of an existing area in a city, 

 this becomes an entirely different problem. There the disruption 

 that would take place, the cutting of trenches on lawns, the tearing 

 up of streets and the existence of gaslines, sewerlines, waterlines, 

 and so on, raise the cost. You don't have a 1 or 1% to 1 ratio, 

 you can have a 5 to 1 or 1 to 1 ratio, and the home owner himself 

 would have to change the facilities at his house to accept a wire 

 coming in underground. We have estimated that service entrance 

 facilities thus located as compared to coming in overhead, might run 

 about $300 for the individual home owner. 



That part of the problem is much, much tougher than the other, 

 and much work needs to be done. 



In downtown areas, in most cities of any size, you do have under- 

 ground and, in most instances, this is the only acceptable way. 



Now, when we talk about overhead transmission, about high- 

 voltage lines that have to be suspended by long strings of insulators 

 from large poles or towers, we are talking about an entirely different 

 problem. Here we are playing in a different size ball park. We are 

 not talking in terms of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars, 

 we are talking billions of dollars in differences in construction ratios 

 of underground cost to overhead. Those are in the order of 20 to 1 

 or even higher than 20 to 1 .* 



Mr. BENNETT. I am a State regulator and I am exposed to the 

 public. Generally speaking, the public in my State wants under- 

 grounding. This will be accomplished by the action of the States 

 and localities. It is basically not a Federal program, because of the 

 nature of our Constitution. 



*Mr. Lischer has submitted a statement on electric transmission lines which 

 appears later in this chapter. 



