Photo taken Sept 25th on the corner of Marie-Anne and Hotel-de-Ville.
Kristian Gravenor recently reported on his blog that that electrical poles have been illegal in Montreal since 1905. Facilitating snow removal was one of the main reasons for the passing the municipal bylaw over a century ago. But not only have wire tangles like this remained in many neighbourhoods, above-ground wires continue to be incorporated into new developments.
Also, check out the second 40-foot pole which appears to exist solely to prop up the no-parking and one-way street signs.
8 comments
I think the second one, with only the No Parking sign on it, was intended to have all the wiring moved to, since it’s further back from the corner.
Electrical poles are illegal in Montreal?!!!
Wow!!
Think of all the areas that could have looked less cluttered, where trees could have been allowed to develop properly without Hydro cutting them to shreds. All the power outages that could have been prevented during storms if the blessed electrical system was underground instead.
Just mind boggling.
I noticed that since I first arrived to Montreal. I think the lack of any kind of above-ground wires in most areas of the city is a really nice feature :). Christopher King, the electrical system is mostly underground in Montreal. Are you talking about other cities? Or about the parts of the city where the electrical system is not underground?
the second pole was put up by accident, is my guess.
Je sais pas, y’a aucun coté esthétique interessant aux poteaux électriques.
If telephone poles are illegal, there sure are a lot of them here! What I particularly notice is the incredible amount of damage some of them take from the sidewalk snow plows and yet still manage to stay standing. There is one on Marie-Anne just east of the Main, next to Parc du Portugal that is just about halfway cut into. Sometimes they get bolstered by having a new one installed and then bolted together.
@jasmin, moi je trouve lex poteaux très beaux. En plus, les fils font un réseau de pistes pour les écureuils!
The whole 1905 thing is interesting. Verdun only put the wires on Wellington underground about 15 years ago and there are still some above ground around the city. Of course Verdun was not part of Montreal then. Still, I seem to remember wires being above ground in most places here as of the late 60’s. Could be wrong.
Asethetically, they are unattractive! Further enforement of the 1905 law would be a good thing.
It would not surprise me to learn that the residences in the photo predate 1905!
As both Telephone, Hydro and probably cable TV are on these poles, it would be VERY COSTLY to change over to underground services, digging up the streets and trenches to each dwelling or meter.
Even then, a certain amount of ‘poles’ would be required to suspend streetlights, and their wiring too would have to be strung underground and buried.
And, yes, what would the squirrels do, then?
Maybe the could run squirrel conduits beneath the streets just for them?
Years Ago Bell Telephone had problems with squirrels nibbling on their wires and installed Vee-Shaped endless tents over their cables between poles.
The results were so-so, so they then applied a gooey honey-like paste to keep squirrels away. Messy.
Lead-covered telephone cables were pressurized at the exhanges and their ‘flow’ monitored by ‘gas’ meters like those for natural gas.
This was to keep water out of any pin-hole leaks that may have developed in the sheaths.
Records were kept of ‘consumption’ and if it ‘spiked’ a man would be sent to walk the cables with a sensitive Microphone and earphones to listen for the leaks.
If a telephone cable had to be opened for splicing work, a Nitrogen bottle somewhat like those used in welding, would be chained to a pole and be used pressurize the cables beyond the splice.
Small-diameter lead pipes were soldered between parallel cables to supply pressure from one to another.
In rainy weather, water would seep into telephone cables, the ground hum on circuits would become louder, and Amperes on the power board in the Central Offices would rise as cables ‘Grounded’.