Tonight: More funding sought for Santa Cruz Avenue sidewalks, flood protection

Why do they need a 3 inch conduit for traffic signal monitoring? You could fit almost 1000 fiber optic cables in a conduit this size. And they plan to spend $500,000 to install an empty conduit they might not even use. Why not 1/2 or 1 inch? Or just go wireless and save a bunch of cash for something useful.

Mark:

1" conduit 3" conduit, there is very little difference in cost. A small increase in material cost, but that's it. The main cost is trenching, placing and backfilling. In my experience, when you have a trench open you take advantage of it. That 3" conduit will allow for plenty of future, unanticipated needs with ease. Put in the small one and then need larger, you're digging up the street again. It's cheap insurance to go large.

What are there, maybe 3 traffic signals in this section of Santa Cruz? They could just get 3 DSL lines for signal monitoring from AT&T, total cost maybe $100/month. Or they can spend $500,000 on an empty conduit they may never use. That's equivalent to 5000 months or 416 years worth of DSL service.

mark:

you're missing the point. The cost isn't in the SIZE of the conduit, its the cost to put conduit in the ground. It doesn't matter is its DSL or whatever else. If you're putting conduit in the ground the size doesn't matter.