HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Hendersonville city leaders are exploring new ways to bury power lines and improve utility reliability after a recent ice storm left many residents without electricity for days.
The push for underground utilities follows a severe weather event that caused widespread outages and property damage across the area.
Hendersonville Mayor Jamie Clary said the storm prompted him to find a solution for the city's infrastructure.
"The storm reminded us of how vulnerable and how vital some of our power lines are," Clary said. "What we really want is reliability for our utility lines, especially since we just had the ice storm."
"We’ve had two tornadoes in the past five years," he said.
Clary said the city had been talking with NES for almost a year about utility lines on West Main Street.
A potential solution popped up several weeks after the ice storm when Elon Musk's Boring Company announced a contest for one free mile of tunnel, similar to a project being built in Nashville.
"The way the Boring Company came about was sort of serendipitous. We have been talking with NES for almost a year about the utility lines, specifically on West Main Street… Then we started talking to the Boring Company, and literally three hours after we met with them the first time, they told us about this competition," Clary said.
Clary said he wanted to use the opportunity to bury power lines on Main Street.
"They liked our idea as far as utility lines," he said. "And I think they also liked the fact that we were so close to Nashville, where they already have another project."
On Monday, city leaders found out Hendersonville did not make the final pick for the free tunnel.
"So, we found out about it the way most people did, but when we also got to work, we had an email from one of the people that we had been talking to from the Boring Company," Clary said. "They said they want to continue conversations with us. They consider us a runner-up."
Even without winning the contest, city leaders said they will continue moving forward to improve power lines, including the possibility of still burying them.
"So the permitting issues that they speak of, we really don’t have any," Clary said. "Ours is pretty simple. Also the fact that we won’t have any cars, at least not initially, moving through the tunnel."
Clary said the cost to trench Main Street would be less but cause more disruption.
"If it’s trenching from above ground, that’ll have a bigger interruption. It’ll cost less to do trenching, but it’ll have a bigger interruption," he said. "We know that we will have an awful lot of space still available under there because it would be a 12-foot diameter bore."
Clary said The Boring Company wants to continue conversations with city leaders.
"We may not go with the Boring Company with a tunnel under Main Street," he said. "We may look at trenching on both sides of Main Street. We may look at another option. What we really want is reliability, resiliency for our utility lines."
Whether it's under Main Street or through the ground, Hendersonville leaders said they will keep digging for a brighter future.
Have you experienced extended power outages in Hendersonville, or do you have thoughts on the city's plan to bury utility lines? We want to hear from you! Watch the full video report above to see the proposed areas, and share your story by emailing our Sumner County reporter at kim.rafferty@NewsChannel5.com.
In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a video news report originally written by Kim Rafferty. When using this tool, both Kim and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team verified all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.
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