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tolerated by the community than large scale activities that impact a large geographic area.
• ySufficient time must be provided in between the construction start times of sequential phases to allow for design, permitting, contractor procurement, and easement acquisition activities. Design activities are performed by the Town and the utility companies as a joint effort for each phase.
• yMultiple phases also provide the opportunity for the Town to better control the flow of funds to both the utility companies and the contractor constructing the work. The utility companies require up-front payment of their construction costs. With a very large phase size, significant costs would be incurred very early in the process for materials and equipment that may not be installed for several years.
Electric and Communication Utility System Technical Requirements
There are also technical requirements that must be considered when setting the phase area limits for an undergrounding conversion program. For this program, Kimley-Horn held a workshop with FPL, AT & T, and Comcast to review technical issues and mutually agree upon specific phasing
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limits. FPL and AT & T were relatively flexible with where the phase line limits were to be located. Comcast had less ability to be flexible because of the way their fiber optic nodes provide communications service to a very specific area. Changing an existing node boundary requires a significant amount of device programming that can both increase cost and create a higher level of customer disruption during the reprogramming process. To the greatest extent practical, the phase lines developed mimic existing fiber optic node boundary lines already established in the field by Comcast.
Cost Efficiency
There is a high priority placed on cost control for this program. Effective cost control begins during the planning process. From an electrical perspective, phase lines were set to allow the reuse of as much existing underground infrastructure as possible. For example, all the existing Intracoastal crossings for electric and communications cables will remain in service without the need for replacement in this program. We also took advantage of locating phase limits at the existing overhead to underground transition points that exist throughout the Town to reduce the costs. For example, the existing overhead system transitions underground on the north and south sides of the Palm Beach Country Club.
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By placing a phase limit at this location, the costs related to installing temporary poles to make the transition from the new underground system back to the overhead system are eliminated. Since these transition points are temporary, but necessary for the continued provision of power to the community, it is important that the number of transitions be reduced to the minimum required.
6.2 Sequencing Recommendations
Once the limits of each individual phase were determined, the sequence in which they are to be constructed was determined. This master plan’ s sequencing recommendations for the undergrounding program, along with sequencing of additional planned projects( i. e., capital projects, gas / watermain replacement, etc.), are graphically depicted on the sequencing maps beginning on page 52 of this Master Plan.
To develop the recommended sequence for the program, several factors needed to be considered. These factors included the following:
• yMajor work programs
• yTraffic impacts
• yCost efficiency
• ySchedule Efficiency
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The above factors and their influence on the development of the recommended sequencing of the program are described in greater detail below.
Major Work Programs
As discussed in the Data Collection section of this master plan, there are several major work programs that will be in progress concurrently with the undergrounding program. There is a need to coordinate these major work programs with the undergrounding program to minimize community impacts to the extent practical. Major work programs in addition to undergrounding consist of the following:
‣ ¾ Town of Palm Beach Capital Improvement Program
‣ ¾ Town of Palm Beach Shore Protection Program
‣ ¾ City of West Palm Beach Watermain Replacement
‣ ¾ Florida Public Utilities Gas Main Replacement
‣ ¾ Florida Department of Transportation Work Program
Town of Palm Beach Capital Improvement Program
Several of the projects contained in the Town of Palm Beach’ s Capital Improvement Program are being funded through bond proceeds which must be expended by the end of 2019. These bond funded projects are considered to be part of the
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48 | CHAPTER SIX |
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