SHOULD WE BURY BROADBAND AND ELECTRICITY TOGETHER? Co-undergrounding is the practice of burying both electric and broadband internet lines together. It’s an expensive business, especially if the above-ground lines haven’t reached the end of their usefulness — but could it save money in the long run?
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esearchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have investigated this question. In their study, which has been published in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability, the researchers examined several factors that influence the cost of undergrounding lines, using computational modelling across a variety of infrastructure upgrade scenarios. The co-undergrounding of wires is becoming a salient issue for decision-makers who
are focused on the efficiency of infrastructure, according to Erin Baker, faculty director of ETI and distinguished professor in the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst. “Instead of tearing up the road to do this and then a year later tear it up to do that, let’s think about doing it together,” she said.
An aggressive approach
One question posed by the researchers was how aggressively towns should pivot to put-
28 ECD [ELECTRICAL+COMMS+DATA] - JUNE 2025
ting lines underground. Should they wait until lines have reached the end of their lifespan and then replace as needed, or proactively move forward? To answer this, the study defined three overarching considerations: the cost of converting lines from above ground to underground; the cost of outages; and the hours of outages that can be avoided if lines are underground. To quantify these factors, the researchers created a nuanced computational model. “A big driver of this whole thing is the cost,” said Jimi Oke, director of NARS Lab, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and principal investigator of the study. “In previous studies, people just used estimates based on average values, but we
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