UNDERGROUND POWER lines are installed with these machines. At far left, the power cable is planted into the ground. Above, Dale Christie of Canby pulls a cable onto the giant reels. (Photo by Michael Larson)

The first underground installation of major power cables in Brown County was completed Wednesday.

Power lines were installed for the Brown County Rural Electric Association along County Road 24between County Road 13 and Hwy.15.

“IT’S JUST a little job,” Vernon Knutson said of the five-mile stretch of cable. Knutson is construction supervisor for Scheppmann Construction Co., Okabena, the firm installing the line.

Powered by two large track vehicles, an installation machine is used to dig up the ground, then plant the cable into the hole. Cables are placed 42 inches deep.

“Normally we try to place it in the deepest part of the ditch,” Knutson said.”Under the ground, it’s much safer than these wires overhead.” The temperature is much more even underground and there’s less stress, he said.

LES SCHRUPP, manager of the Brown County REA, said that “in future years you will see more and more lines put in under the ground.”

“Ecologically, no one wants to see those power lines put in above the ground.”

Cost, although now higher for installing underground cables, is expected to equalize soon, Schrupp said.

Many counties already have installed extensive amounts of underground cable. A one-wire power line was installed for Oak Haven Mobile Home Court, an REA spokesman said. But the three-wire line installed Wednesday,he added,was the largest line installed by the REA to date and the fist installed outside New Ulm.

“Underground cables are being upgraded all the time,” Knutson said. “They’re just getting better and better.”

New Ulm Daily Journal

Nov. 6, 1975