It seems like a great idea to bury all power lines after an ice storm, but the cost is much greater than the $15 billion price tag.

If you think our roads are bumpy now, they’ll be much worse if Toronto’s 15,000-kilometre network of overhead wires is buried beneath the streets.

The idea of submerging the city’s overhead electrical grid was often raised after 300,000 Toronto Hydro customers lost power during the Dec. 21-22 ice storm.

Some people were without electricity for a week, but not in areas where power lines run below ground, as is the case in newer neighbourhoods.

Toronto Hydro CEO Anthony Haines said it would cost $15 billion to bury all overhead wires, and that electricity rates would go up by 300 per cent to pay for it.

So it is unlikely to happen. But if it did, an additional price would be paid by everyone who drives, in the form of rougher roads and further traffic delays from construction.

Every time an emergency repair is needed for underground utilities, or even for basic maintenance, a hole is dug in the street to access it — the main reason our roads are much rougher than 15 or 20 years ago.

The vast network of Internet and cable-TV wiring is buried under the street, as well as a lot of phone lines, to go along with water and sewer pipes that have always been underground.

If 15,000 kilometres of electrical wiring is added to the array of utilities already under the street, the number of holes dug in the road to get at them will skyrocket.

The city issues nearly 100,000 utility cut permits annually to authorize the excavations and sets standards for patching them, but doesn’t have nearly enough staff to enforce the standards on contractors.

It explains why utility cut patches often settle below the surrounding road surface and are as bad as a pothole, particularly in winter, when moisture and road salt crumbles the pavement around the edges.

Imagine if the number of utility cuts increased by 50 per cent, due to a huge increase in buried power lines. The damage to roads would be enormous.

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