Mass. Gov. proposes underground power lines

BOSTON (WPRI) -- As the Blizzard of 2013 barreled across Southern New England, power was knocked out to tens of thousands of people in Massachusetts. Downed power lines were blamed as one of the major reasons for the widespread outages, so the governor of Massachusetts is looking ahead for a solution.

Gov. Deval Patrick is petitioning electric companies to make some major changes. He's proposing to take the power lines out of the air and have them placed underground. He believes this plan could keep both the lights and heat running for the majority of Southern New Englanders during a storm.

"I think we're getting to a point where it would be very worthwhile for the utilities in my opinion, to do some hard analysis about the value of burying utilities underground," he said. "It's a very expensive thing. I understand that, or I can imagine that, but consider that we are getting more of these storms, greater frequency, greater severity and the cost of clean-up and the disruption I just wonder how all that fits in the balance."

However, his idea may not be that simple. Representatives from National Grid said the transmission lines are five times more expensive to install than above-ground lines. They also said underground lines are also challenging to inspect and maintain.