W.U. Gains OK For Underground Utilities

June 20, 2014

Those utilities include fiber-optic lines, electrical lines and heating and cooling lines that are proposed to be buried there in the coming months.

The university has existing utility lines beneath the Edgar right of way, but the intersection of Edgar and Garden must be widened to accommodate new development on the campus. That road widening may require the university to relocate its lines.

The university and Ameren Missouri are installing a new electrical substation to provide additional electrical power to the university and other parts of the city adjacent to the campus. That will also require relocation of certain utility lines.

As far as the agreement with the city, Greg Gunderson, the university's vice president and chief financial officer, said he protested an annual right of way management fee that would total $1.90 per linear foot of buried conduit annually, with the university likely to install 1,000 to 2,000 linear feet.

He said the fee "caught us off guard."

"Ameren asked us to build an electrical substation due to limited capacity, and its construction will help the Webster Groves community to alleviate pressures on the electrical grid," he said.

"We don't object to paying the city as we bury the cable, to compensate residents for the inconvenience of installation. But this will be an annual charge, assessed long after construction is over, after the disruption has disappeared."

He unsuccessfully asked that the city instead assess a one-time permit fee of $116 per 300 linear feet of cable, as St. Louis County does.

City Attorney Helmut Starr insisted that the university was told by Ameren that it couldn't go ahead with construction of its planned new academic building without installing that new substation, because a current substation is at capacity.

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W.U. Gains OK For Underground Utilities