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May 2008

May. 24, 2008 - Vilano Beach Town Center Update

Greg Caldwell from St. Johns County engineering reported the following updates on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at the Vilano Beach Main Street meeting concerning the Vilano Beach Town Center infrastructure improvements:
 
The roundabout fountain by the fishing pier will be operational by this weekend (Memorial Day weekend).
It was operational on Thursday, May 22nd. It looks great especially at night. Yes, it is shut off late at night. Have you noticed the nice neon lights on the bell tower by the fishing pier?
 
FPL’s underground utilities are now hot, so work can start on removing the poles and overhead utilities.
Hopefully you have noticed the nice streetlights with the neon trim in the Vilano Beach Town Center
 
The conversion to underground utilities is happening now and is expected to be complete by the first week of June 2008. Hampton Inn and Ocean Blue II has already been converted. The county is working from west to east. Once conversion is complete they can start removing the power poles.
Once the poles are down I think our streetscape will truly shine. The poles should be removed by the end of June.
 
Glass tile on the entry feature will occur next week (last week in May) along with completing the new sign for Vilano Beach Town Center.
As this is the first thing visitors see when entering our Town Center this will be nice when complete.
 
And finally, what we have all been waiting for:
Final paving will begin the first week of June 2008 and should be complete by the end of the month. Paving by Ocean Blue II should happen next week, but Vilano Road won’t be paved until the utility poles are removed as there will be some sidewalk repair that will need to be done after the poles are removed.
Friends visiting me in Porpoise Point have commented on the number of speed bumps we have on Vilano Road. I had to tell them those are crosswalks, not speed bumps. I can’t wait for the final coat!
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May. 6, 2008 - Bury Utilities By the Coast?

As chair of Scenic & Historic Corridor Management Council and President of A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal Byway, I am frequently asked about burying utilities along our scenic highway. We get push back from Florida Power and Light (FPL). So in an effort to once again understand this issue, I went to FPL's website and found:

http://www.fpl.com/environment/lines/brighter_future.shtml

FPL maintains, "The reliability of overhead and underground lines is comparable...The key difference between underground and overhead lines is that it typically takes more time with underground lines to diagnose the problem and make repairs. This difference in repair time is best characterized in days rather than hours." Additionally FPL states on their website: "Compared to overhead transmission lines, underground transmission lines take longer to repair and are five to fifteen times more costly to construct...FPL may only bury lines when another entity agrees to pick up the differential cost between underground and overhead construction."

Doing some quick research on the Internet, I found this report that states that underground lines are considerably more reliable than overhead, but again more expensive to bury. So, as we all suspected, it comes down to money.

http://www.eei.org/industry_issues/energy_infrastructure/distribution/UndergroundReport.pdf

In the above Edison Electric report, on page 11 it says, "The Florida House of Representatives requested that the Florida Public Utility Commission prepare a proposal to underground all electric facilities in the state following the unprecedented landfall of four major hurricanes in Florida in 2004."

We need to find the referenced proposal. I found it: http://www.psc.state.fl.us/publications/pdf/electricgas/Underground_Wiring.pdf

 

 

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Let's talk waterfront-ocean, river, Intracoastal in Northeast Florida, A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal National Scenic Byway, beach renourishment and Vilano Beach Town Center news.

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