CITYWATCH Funding for burying power lines remains an issue BY BRIAN C. JONES

The long-running fight to bury a network of ungainly utility lines crossing the Providence and East Providence waterfronts is tantalizingly close to being resolved. But like a homeowner who tries to dig a garden and keeps striking rocks, the people who hope to put the lines underground continue to run into financial ledges.

At stake is a series of transmission lines draped across Providence’s India Point Park and the Providence and Seekonk rivers. The lines have to be moved slightly to make way for relocation of Interstate 195 in downtown Providence.

Supporters of the park and Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch say this is an opportunity to hide the lines — which, they say, spoil waterfront views and degrade redevelopment projects in both cities. Narragansett Electric Company officials are willing to bury the lines, but don’t want ratepayers or stockholders shouldering the extra cost of putting the cables underground.

After more than a year of wrangling, almost all of the money seems to be in place for burial — including a key source of funds from Providence and East Providence. City councils have approved diverting $4.7 million in electric bill rebates that power customers in both cities would have received from an unrelated rate case.

There’s a new stumbling block, however — escalating cost estimates for burial, which once were as low as $8.2 million to $9.1 million. Paul J. Roberti, an assistant attorney general, now pegs construction at between $13.8 million and $14.5 million — close to the more than $13.5 million he’s cobbled from various sources, including the customer rebates. But Frederick L. Mason III, Narragansett’s spokesman, says the construction cost figure is about $16 million to $17.1 million.

What’s the difference?

The electric company is adding in more than $2 million to cover the cost of temporarily relocating the wires above ground, so the highway project can move forward while the burial job is designed and implemented. Roberti contends that the temporary relocation is a separate issue, and shouldn’t be included in the burial cost estimates. The electric company says temporary relocation is part of the overall project.

Dana Alexander Nolfe, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, says $4.2 million is available from the department, slightly less than the $4.5 million estimated earlier, and that the temporary relocation would come out of that money.

Roberti thinks the electric company could do a cheaper version of the relocation, using wooden poles instead of metal towers to hold the temporary cables, at cost of $700,000, compared to more than $2 million. But he says electric and DOT experts don’t like the wooden pole alternative because the teepee-like poles would take too much room at the construction site and in the park.

Jeff Neal, a spokesman for Governor Donald L. Carcieri, says the governor already has committed an extra $2 million in state funds, on top of the $2.5 million allocated by DOT, and it’s not clear whether more is needed, since estimates keep changing. Neal says the governor believes the cables should be buried, and he wants to work with various parties to make it happen.

The state Energy Facility Siting Board, which regulates the project, has given the attorney general’s office until January 15 to account for the funds needed for burial.