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Comments
Does this happen more often than usual in Boston / downtown
I have to imaging that the manhole explosions we have seen over the past few years is something unusual? And happens more often than it should? I grew up in NYC and can't remember this happening and certainly not as often. In the North End alone there were two plus massive flooding in the short few months I lived there...
Georgetown
There was a period where this happened all the time in Georgetown (D.C.). Something about cables reaching a certain age/stress level and the chemicals in the rubber insulation doing... blow-up-y things.
I imagine we're seeing the same thing here; some set of cables reaches its lifespan, plus load grows as people use more electronics, plus once a cable goes out, the load on neighboring cables increases, etc. etc.
It's incredible just how much more electricity we use than 25 years ago. I didn't realize it till I moved into a once-modern apartment built in the early '80s. There was one phone jack - in the kitchen. Naturally! Who would need a phone in the living room? And there wasn't even an outlet for that phone jack, because who needs to plug in a phone?
Add in computers, cell phones, chargers, home theatres, central A/C, etc. etc. The whole apartment had maybe 100-amp service; other than dedicated appliances, no one room had more than one 20-amp circuit.
manhole explosions
but I haven't heard of incidents like this happening so often either -- I've lived in Boston for 11 years. These weird explosions have started recently -- the first time I heard of one was about two years ago, I think.
Holy Crap!
I dropped some friends off at the airport and then headed to the Apple Store at 9 AM just after they opened today. I got what I needed and headed back out into the bluster. Crazy that this happened just after I was there! I'm so glad I got an early start today, I don't like going to the other area Apple Stores.
It happened at about 3:40
We were waiting for the 55 bus, which goes inbound down Boylston St, and it never came. Actually heard the explosion several blocks away, hadn't associated the two. That explains it.