Royal Gorge LLC's Power Play

If you take a look at Royal Gorge LLC's latest iteration of "Lake Camp", and then add an overlay of reality, you might wonder where they're putting the power lines. They'll surely underground the utilities to the individual units, but what are they going to do with those rather inconvenient PG&E main trunk line towers that run through their property? Large power lines running through their new lodge and "West Lake" don't really fit most people's idea of a "recreational amenity." 

The PG&E representative for the area has confirmed that this issue has at least crossed Royal Gorge LLC's minds.  Royal Gorge has contacted PG&E, and PG&E has sent them a contract to study feasibility, cost, and, very importantly, whether PG&E would even be willing to consider moving the trunk line in light of reliability and maintenance concerns. As of March 27, as far as the representative knew, Royal Gorge had not returned the contract to PG&E.

The PG&E representative was unable to give a solid figure for undergrounding main trunk lines before the study was completed, as costs vary depending on many factors.  However, it was thought that $3000 a foot was a general ballpark estimate.  It is uncertain where Royal Gorge would put the underground trunk line; it would be improvident to run the line under roads, where local utility service would most likely be located, as an errant backhoe could darken Sacramento, or San Francisco. At any rate, tally up a mile, to a mile and a half of underground trenching- that makes $16 million to $24 million.  Add in digging through all that granite? Maybe priceless.

Houses and buildings of course could not be constructed over an easement for an undergrounded trunk line.  But I'm sure Royal Gorge will have a solution for that.  They'll build a long, flat, straight cross country ski trail, and call it "Tower of Power."