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will not be impacted by undergrounding related traffic
impacts until later in the program. This also allows time for
construction impacts related to non-undergrounding work
programs to be completed in advance of undergrounding
which can reduce the severity of the traffic impacts on some
of the more heavily traveled roadways, such as those in the
Midtown and Royal Poinciana Way commercial areas.
In order to avoid a convergence of undergrounding phase
areas in the center of Town at the end of the program,
Kimley‑Horn recommends that some level of “hop-scotching”
take place such that no two phases undergoing heavy
underground roadway impacts are adjacent to each other
at any one time. In this manner, the impacted phase areas
have separation between them providing clear detour routes
for motorists to avoid roadways that are experiencing heavy
underground construction.
Cost Efficiency
In determining the sequence of the phases, cost efficiency was
also a priority. At the completion of each phase, there will be
a transition from the new underground system to the existing
overhead system to maintain connectivity of the systems after
the de-energized poles are removed. These transitions almost
always require the installation of new temporary poles with
electric and communication risers. Because these new poles
are temporary and will be removed when the phase they
are located in is completed, it is important to minimize the
number of transitions to the greatest extent possible.
In order to do this, phases should be constructed sequentially
so that only one side of the phase area would require these
transitions. The sequencing this master plan recommends
accomplishes this by constructing phases starting from
the extreme north and south ends of Town and thence
moving inward.
In the previous Traffic Impacts discussion the idea of “hop-
scotching” was described to separate the phases to mitigate
traffic impacts. This normally would cause a phase to have
transition infrastructure requirements at both its north and
south sides. However, in this case we are recommending that
TOWN-WIDE
OF of
UTILITIES
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Town-Wide UNDERGROUNDING
UNDERGROUNDING
Utilities
Program
MASTER
PLAN DOCUMENT
Document
MASTER PLAN
the hop-scotching begin in Phase 5 North on the south side of
the Palm Beach Country C