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After years of chronic power outages that dashed holiday plans and left residents in the dark, a Mountain View neighborhood finally got the infrastructural upgrades it was promised by PG&E.
Last month, PG&E completed an extensive rehabilitation project that installed underground conduit and cable to a small pocket of residences in the Waverly Park neighborhood.
“The project consisted of replacing approximately 5,000 deteriorated underground cable along eight streets in Mountain View,” according to PG&E spokesperson Megan McFarland.
The streets that received the new underground cable were: Yorkton Drive, Wortham Court, La Salle Drive, Chatham Way, Swanson Way, Chelsey Avenue, Levin Avenue and St. Giles Lane, McFarland said in the emailed statement.
While contained to a relatively small section of Waverly Park, the power failures had a big impact on residents, as the outages typically lasted for days at a time.
“When the power went out, it was a huge ordeal,” said Susan Tighe, a Yorkton Drive resident. Two years ago, Tighe had to cancel an elaborate Thanksgiving meal at her home, as the electricity cut out just before her guests arrived. It didn’t come back on until two days later.
The situation was not an uncommon one for Tighe, who lived with the constant worry that the power could go out at any time, leaving her in the dark.
Patchwork repairs in the area didn’t help the situation either. Utility crews came in several times over the years, replacing parts of the buried cable, only to return a few months later to try and fix another failing section, according to a Voice article that reported on the outages in 2021.
After the Thanksgiving debacle, PG&E promised to make systematic repairs to improve electrical infrastructure in the neighborhood, but no progress had been made when the Voice followed up on the issue in 2022.
PG&E attributed the delays to difficulty in obtaining easements to carry out the work. It also said it had expanded the scope of the project and was in the process of obtaining different easements, as well as the necessary permits from the city, to replace the aging cable.
A year later, PG&E finally delivered on its promise and completed its infrastructural upgrades. The project broke ground in March 2023, and “after months of potholing, civil work and obtaining several electrical clearances,” construction was completed on Dec. 11, McFarland said.
For Jeff Treuhaft, a Yorkton Drive resident who suffered through multiple, days-long power outages, the cable replacement was cause for celebration. PG&E communicated well ahead of time about any power outages related to the work, he said. And since the project’s completion, he has not had any problems with the power going out.
Similarly, Tighe said she felt relieved and hopeful that the upgrade would improve electrical reliability on her street. She has already noticed that the lights in her home no longer flicker unexpectedly, a telltale sign of an oncoming power failure. “But time will tell,” she said, referring to the possibility of future outages.
Congratulations on PG&E getting that work done. Now when will they finish the work left incomplete on Central Avenue, near Horizon? It has been months without any progress. The sidewalk in blocked and pedestrians have to walk onto the street.