Letters: Why do they not bury telephone and power cables in France?
Connexion reader asks why French companies do not work together to share trenches in the face of repeated disruption from storms
Overhead power cables are often affected by adverse weather conditions
Valentina Angelova / Shutterstock
To the Editor,
Regarding the plans to bury 1,100km of power cables in Brittany, I wonder if Enedis/EDF are missing a trick?
We have frequent thunderstorms in Dordogne, where there is an extensive network of internet broadband cables being buried beside even the very rural roads because the telephone line structure is weak and unreliable.
Would it not have been a much lower cost for Enedis to simultaneously dig such trenches deeper and bury the power cables at a suitable depth below the internet cables?
Stan E. Clarke, by email
Editor’s note: In France, the lack of sharing of trenches is notorious, with electricity, telecoms and water systems often having their own trenches and conduits in the middle of the road – leading to incidents when diggers from one utility break into another’s section.
In Brittany, the electricity trenches have to be relatively deep, and have to be in well-structured soil.
It is likely similar constraints appear in Dordogne, with the added problems of tree roots having to be cleared before conduits for the cables are laid.
After the great storm of 1999/2000, when parts of north Dordogne were without electricity for 20 days, the idea of burying cables was pushed by local municipalities and the department, but EDF rejected it on both technical and cost grounds.
Read more: Wave power generators ride out storms in trials off French coast
Are there still power lines and telephone cables on poles where you live? Has any progress been made to put them underground? Let us know at letters@connexionfrance.com
