The document summarizes a webinar discussing DC PLUG, a plan to bury power lines in DC. Representatives from Casey Trees, Pepco, and the District Department of Transportation Urban Forestry Administration discussed the plan and took questions. They addressed concerns about protecting street trees during the line burial process and outlined outreach and oversight measures, like having arborists on-site during work and replacing trees if needed with species suitable for the location.

1. DC PLUG: Burying Lines, Raising Questions (Webinar)
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November 12, 2014
Casey Trees hosted a live webinar, DC PLUG: Burying Lines, Raising Questions,
in partnership with the Urban Forestry Administration and Pepco to address the
impact of DC PLUG on neighborhood street trees.
The webinar provided an overview of DC PLUG, the District’s ambitious plan to
bury the worst performing power lines across the city, and outlined
recommendations to safeguard the city’s tree canopy along the proposed burial
routes.
Presenters:
Maisie Hughes, Casey Trees, Director of Advocacy
Emily Oaksford, Casey Trees, Planning Associate
Suraj K. Sazawal, Casey Trees, Advocacy Associate
Guests:
John P. Thomas, DDOT, Associate Director of UFA
Nathan McElroy, Pepco Staff Forester
Scott Placide, Pepco Engineer
The following is a transcript of the webinar’s Q&A session. The presentation
slides and a complete transcript of webinar presentation can be found here.
Maisie Hughes: Now is your opportunity to weigh in with all of your questions.
We have here on the telephone representatives from Pepco and from UFA, and
they’re here to take your questions. Let’s start with one for John Thomas. John,
are you ready for your first question?
John Thomas: Yes, I’m ready.
Maisie Hughes: All right! So Vincent V. who is an arborist himself, wrote in with
a question about directional boring. He wants to know if you’re considering, as

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part of an alternative option, to do trenching or boring in the sidewalk, if you need
to have power lines under the sideway.
John Thomas: Yes. UFA’s had that as a standard practice for several years
now and it’s certainly the first step that we ask utilities to look at to make sure
that they can do horizontal boring. And some of that is possible – and I think
Scott can address more of the engineering side of it – a lot of it depends on how
much space you have around to get it started and then pull it back out. So, it will
certainly be something that we want to walk through to make sure we understand
why it couldn’t be used or we’ll certainly look to have it implemented whenever
possible, and we understand that that is one of the best ways to try to reduce the
conflict between trenching and roots and trying to reduce that conflict and giving
the tree the best chance going forward.
Scott Placide: Thanks, John. This is Scott Placide with Pepco. Additionally,
Pepco is exploring opportunities where horizontal drilling may be the most
practical method for installing power lines underground. However, in our
experience working as the utility in the D.C. area, we don’t typically use
directional drilling in our common underground utility practices for many reasons,
one of them being the amount of space that setting up the equipment takes. It’s
not a hundred percent a non-excavation practice. You do need to dig a large test
pit at either end of the directional bore, so there’s still going to be a large amount
of excavation involved with directional boring. And, also, the operation for
directional boring is typically a 24/7 process, so in some of these neighborhoods
where you have residents, you can’t just stop at three o’clock when it’s time for
everyone to go home. You’ve got to keep the drills running until the project is
completed. So there are many considerations with directional boring, but we are
looking into opportunities where this may be practical for this project.
Maisie Hughes: Great. We have a clarifying question from William. William
observed on his street that he has three wires on utili ty poles, but he looked at
the plan and didn’t see that his street was included. I believe this means that his
street is not slated for having the feeders underground. Is that the case?
Scott Placide: That’s not necessarily the case. We have identified the greater
area of where the primary wires will be, but, at the end of the primary wires, you
have the electrical equipment such as the transformer. And from the transformer,
voltage is converted to the 120 volts that you have at your outlets at your home.
Those wires will remain overhead and could extend maybe a block or two outside
of the extensive proposed excavation.
Maisie Hughes: We have a question from Jim. John, I think that you can
probably answer this. Jim wants to know if it’s too late to get the proposal
changed to include all of the utility lines.

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John Thomas: Yes, this is just a partnership that was formed, like Nathan said,
between the Mayor and Pepco executives. I think that it would be probably cost-prohibitive
to try to figure out how to do everybody, and it gets very complex, very
quickly, and it’s hard to show that, but when you start looking at the space
allocation and some utilities might be brand-new and be asking them to do
something…I think this is one where it strikes a balance of providing some
reliability and safety for residents as far as when we have storms and it works in
both directions. So, I think, right now, it’s strictly going to be a relationship
between Pepco and the City.
That doesn’t mean that on some of these projects there might be other
opportunities to do things, that just isn’t the driving force, but I can’t say that. I’m
sure there will be opportunities for D.C. Water and others to maybe make
changes once we’re doing some work, but that would be more if we doing a total
road construction, where we were digging out the entire road, as part of this, and
maybe there would be an opportunity there. We hear you, but it’s not part of this
project.
Maisie Hughes: I believe that the legislation that gave permission for this
project to move forward focused only on the primary power lines and not any of
the other lines going underground. What’s been approved at this point is to bury
the primary power lines. We have a sense of which ones will be buried in the
first three years, but we’ll have to take a look at any amendments to the plan to
make sure that there aren’t going to be any dramatic changes.
We have a question from Bill, for John again. Does UFA have the resources to
have an arborist representative on-scene when Pepco is doing work that is likely
to impact trees?
John Thomas: Yes, like I said earlier, we have 20 arborists on staff. All 20 are
in the field every day. So then we have our 2 landscape architects who will be
creating designs and standards and making comments that are carried over into
the contract. We will have our arborist on-site, and I won’t say that we’ll be there
every second that activity is happening, but we will be there, and we also will be
available so someone can call us – as we do now with most utilities – and we just
stop what we’re doing and we can run over there.
The spaces that the arborists work in through the City are relatively small. Each
arborist has their own geographical area they’re responsible for, so it’s very easy
for them to get in and around that area to look at issues and, honestly, we’ll keep
in close contact with Nathan and the construction group, but we’ll also have
Public Space inspectors there, who’ll be managing the other aspects of this,
which is just traffic control and how the project is actually being managed in

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public space. And so we’ll have other DDOT employees there, as well. So there
will be – between Pepco and DDOT – there will be someone there probably
almost, well, every second, obviously doing the work, but there will be people
who are there for oversight on a regular basis, and UFA will be there checking in
and making sure. And what our goal is to do an inventory prior to these projects
on these blocks so we know the conditions of the trees going in, and then we’ll
do a follow-inventory so we can any changes that have happened.
Maisie Hughes: John, can you talk a little bit more about the outreach that you’ll
be doing for a resident? Let’s say that you know that there’s a feeder that’s
going to be underground in that community, what type of outreach will your
arborists or your staff be doing to residents that are actually going to be impacted
on their street?
John Thomas: Once we get going and if we have a block that has significant
impact, obviously we will work to contact the owners, the residents, and let them
know what’s going on. But the whole project will have constant contact with the
community between, I believe, Pepco has contact that they’ll be making with
residents when they do this. RDT Construction branch – Keith Foxx who is
managing DC PLUG – that whole group has an outreach component with it.
The Mayor’s Office will always have some relationship there. They’ll be Advisory
Neighborhood Commission (ANC) meetings. So there will be lots of activity
going on. We will be involved in all of that. So the arborists will be involved in all
parts of that and at those different junctions. And, like I said, the last, worst-case
scenario, I guess, if there’s significant issues or, say, something has changed
and there’s an effect on trees, then we will have to do an old-fashioned door-to-door
campaign or alert the ANC who can then alert the neighborhood, but we
plan on being involved in this as much as everyone else is already involved in
this. So, there’s always going to be someone representing DDOT or Pepco, or
the Mayor’s office, and being able to talk to the ANCs or the community.
Maisie Hughes: Thanks, John. We’re getting lots of questions. Dolores wants
to know if there are trees that need to be replaced, are you going to be using
different species of trees than the ones that are currently there?
John Thomas: With any tree we plant, our arborists make a decision on-site,
choosing the best species, “right tree/right place” concept where we are
maximizing the canopy, but also putting in the appreciate species that’s going to
survive in the long term and do well in that location. So, we will plant trees. The
trees will not be planted immediately. They will be planted…because we plant
trees only between October and April, so depending on whenever that space
becomes available. If it becomes available in May, that tree is not going to get
planted until the following fall or spring. So it’s not going to be something that’s

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planted immediately after. So all the work can be done and everyone moves
onto to their next block, but we won’t put trees there until the next planting
season is available. And then the species will be determined by what is left, so if
there’s no primary, we probably will look for different species and we will put the
right species in that spot that works for the infrastructure that’s there and the
space that’s available. You know, a lot of times we have private trees that are in
front lawns, and that restricts the type of tree we can plant, so it’s really a case-by-
case decision that the arborists make when they make that planting work
order.
Maisie Hughes: Great! Thanks, John. I have another John who has a question
about feeder lines that are currently buried. He wants to know – probably Pepco
would be better to answer this one – where are most of the locations? Are the
feeder lines that are currently buried throughout the city, are they located in the
roadway or are they located under the sidewalk?
Scott Placide: So most of the existing underground Pepco lines can be found in
Wards 1, 2 and 6, and their locations vary from the roadway to the sidewalk. It
really depends on coordination between other utilities for the space that’s
available in the right-of-way. We do have to maintain certain clearances from
other utilities. Additionally, as I spoke to, a lot of our equipment, we install that in
the sidewalk, because those are facilities that our line crews are going to need to
access the most, and the safest place for them to access those facilities will be
behind the curb in the sidewalk space.
Maisie Hughes: We have a question from Bill. He wants to know how a citizen
can learn specifically when and where Pepco will be performing the work,
especially work that’s involving trees, particularly pruning or removing trees, as
part of this program.
Scott Placide: We have a full-blown communication plan as far as this project,
so we’ll be working very closely with local community ANCs, communicating the
progress of the project and upcoming construction schedules when we get to that
stage of the project. As issues relate specifically to trees, I think John spoke to it
a little earlier, in that there will be an established process for tree replacement
and it could come to even knocking on local residents’ doors for giving out
information.
Maisie Hughes: We have a question for Pepco. Any hope for a Maryland PLUG
project?
Scott Placide: We haven’t seen anything from that. The Plan came from the
Mayor’s Task Force in D.C., so it was strictly geared at the District of Columbia
power line infrastructure.

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Maisie Hughes: You can find Casey Trees’ public comments on our website.
It’s www.caseytrees.org. If you want to take a look at our advocacy platform, it’s
www.caseytrees.org/advocate. If you have any specific questions, feel free to
email us at advocacy@caseytrees.org.
We have a question from Helen who has concerns about tree roots during re-pavement.
Helen wants to know if you can more specifically articulate how you
can guarantee oversight during the construction process? Your arborist won’t be
there 24/7 while the construction is going on, so how is oversight managed for
these types of projects? Helen’s concern is particularly around tree roots, where
she saw a contractor inappropriately put in a sidewalk around tree roots. So, can
you talk a little bit more about how you provide oversight?
John Thomas: Sure. The first phase of it is, really, like I said, the landscape
architects will provide very clear and specific standards and specifications, and
then drawings to go with it. So that, in itself, will become part of the contract
package, which then the contractor is obligated. That sets the baseline for us to
use. Whenever they deviate or something is deviated from those drawings or
those standards, that’s when we are allowed to take action or enforce things.
Typically, what we do is we will visit the site before, during and after. Most of the
crews that are going to do the work on the DDOT side are crews that we have
worked with for years, and so they know, and are trained, and we’ve spent time
with them how excavating happens. And though sometimes it looks bad around
a trees when they’re removing the concrete, getting the concrete out and pouring
it typically isn’t a problem for the tree. If they have to move – say the sidewalk
has to be adjusted or made wider or there’s a buckling or there’s an issue which
is really separate from all of this, that’s when we have problems maybe where
the root and concrete conflict is there. But we have material like flexible paving
material that we can use when we have issues that are not easily resolved using
traditional methods or materials like concrete or brick.
And its important to know that roots don’t grow in the street, there’s not oxygen
and water with the way that the roadbed is built, there’s nothing there for the tree
to use to live, so the roots don’t penetrate that roadbed. And so we don’t have
any issues if the work is all being in the road. The issues we’ll have is when it
starts to cross the sidewalk, and that’s when we’ll be, much like we’re doing now
with Pepco, is we’re going to look at each one of those trees on every one of
these projects and we’re going to walk through what is the best course of action
– are we going to move two feet this way or two feet that? – and spray paint
where we want the trenching to happen.

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And then whenever there’s a trench that’s going to be impacted by a tree, then
that’s when our arborists will work with the construction side of Pepco or our
group to figure out if there are any other ways to do it, and, if not, then we will
have to make a decision based on that impact to the tree and what’s best for the
tree. In some case, we may have to remove a tree, because that is the best
course of action. And in some cases, we may remove trees, because removing
one tree helps set a pattern which eliminates disturbance with the other trees,
and that’s something that happens on a regular basis where one tree is affected,
but it saves 7 or 8 others down the line. So those are the types of things we’re
going to be looking at.
Like I said, our geographical area for our arborists is quite small, and so arborists
will be in and out and around. We can’t sit there all day. This is one project
that’s happening in the City – there are a million other projects, maybe not a
million, but there are hundreds of projects happening around the City that are just
as impactful to trees. This one may get more light shined on it, but we have
development and cranes and things happening all over the City so we have to be
everywhere, and that’s what we do is we make sure we’re everywhere, every day.
And the most important thing is letting them know that we’re here and available
and we’re also going to be there watching them, and that really seems to help.
We’ll have other D.C. employees there, that do public space monitoring, as well,
so between the two groups, we’ll have a lot of oversight on the site.
Maisie Hughes: I have another follow-up question for John. The Questioner is
concerned because in the past two weeks, she’s seen backhoes digging to put in
a sidewalk and breaking branches in the process in order to remove chunks of
concrete and to repave. Is there a way that she can report this to the UFA, or is
there somebody that she should be in contact with in her neighborhood, so that
you can send inspectors out to take a look at the work that contractors are
doing?
John Thomas: First, not every contractor is a DDOT contractor, and not every
sidewalk is always a DDOT project. Developers are required to rebuild sidewalks,
or people just do sidewalk work as part of other redevelopment. So we would
want to make sure that it’s Department of Transportation people or just
developers doing work. And, as always, 311 – anytime there’s a problem
anywhere in the City, I can’t stress it enough, it’s the best way to engage any
agency in the District of Columbia. It’s the tool that the Mayor uses to judge our
performance and how we’re doing to address residents’ concerns. Dial 311. Tell
them you have construction happening out there and you need an arborist to
come out immediately because you’re worried about the tree. We will either get
that in the service request system within a few minutes, and the arborists using
the live connected computer in the field, they’ll see that service request pop up
on their screen, as well, or they will route you right to our office. They’ll take the

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call and then they’ll dispatch an arborist to go look at it. But 311 is the best way
to do work with UFA. It is the tool. We get about 14,000 service requests and
we make about 20,000 work orders a year.
Maisie Hughes: Great. And just to clarify, John, even though not all of the
contractors who are working in the street are contractors for the District
government, you, as the person in charge of UFA, help to manage the tree bill
which protects all trees in the city, and so that’s why people should still contact
you via 311 to make sure that you can go out and inspect all trees. Is that
correct?
John Thomas: Yes. Whenever you have a problem with a tree, you should call
311 and let us know. The tree bill protects trees 55 inches or greater that are on
private property.
Maisie Hughes: There are also tree protection for smaller trees that are in the
public right-of-way, too. Right, John?
John Thomas: Right, the Bluebook has tree protection standards, which is our
District Department of Transportation Design and Engineering Guide, that
provides tree protection measure for street trees during construction or use of
public spaces. Also if they have a legal permit, those standards and
specifications are on the permit. So, special trees are trees that are 55 inches or
greater and they’re filed under that law. But anything other than that are filed
under the Blue Book. And anytime you see anything going on in public space that
doesn’t look right, call 311. It doesn’t matter if it’s a tree, a light pole, a parking
situation, someone’s breaking a parking meter, or doing anything, any
construction, or someone’s parked a truck on the sidewalk, or doing something
that doesn’t look right or is causing a problem, if you call 311, that will be routed
to the DDOT and DDOT will get someone out there to take a look at it right away.
Maisie Hughes: All right. I think this question probably will end up going to
John, too. Christie asks, “Will the City consider burying the power lines in the
roadway? This could achieve multiple benefits, not only saving trees but also
kicks our implementation of the City’s other transportation objectives such as
added bike facilities and sidewalks as identified in the “MoveDC” plan?” The
question is, are there going to be opportunities for synergy within the construction
of the DC PLUG project?
John Thomas: That is the goal of DC PLUG, one of the drivers and Keith Foxx,
the project manager is to – and it’s already happening where… I mean it’s not
just UFA. DDOT is involved in this. There are 15 or 20 people involved in this –
every part of DDOT are in these meetings and every part of DDOT is
representing their piece of this pie to Keith and Keith is trying to represent the

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entire part of DDOT back and forth with Pepco, and then Pepco’s representing
their piece. So finding that middle ground between Keith and Scott’s group is…
Keith’s coming to that table with all the background that we’ve provided him, and
that’s UFA, that’s Public Space Inspectors, that’s Public Space regulation people,
it’s parking meter people, streetlight people, the bike group, the pedestrian group
– everyone is meeting with Keith to make sure that all their concerns are being
addressed when they develop standards and specifications and drawings and
talk about placement of anything that has to go in the right-of-way, much like we
do with every other project we have, and that conversation happens kind of
behind and Keith’s just taking the ball forward as the representative to make sure
that he’s able to try and articulate what DDOT needs. But the goal is to, and that
is the idea between the cost savings of this is to look for existing projects that we
can do this type of work on that are already underway or have other funding
levers to it, and trying to look to do this so that we’re not impacting any of our
assets out there or maybe making it easier for some of our assets. But that is,
that’s the theme behind all of this is to try to find synergy with both Pepco, but
also with DDOT’s assets as well.
Maisie Hughes: Great. People who asked questions but had to leave the
webinar- we will follow up with answers to your questions via email. Here’s your
last opportunity to throw out a question for us.
Emily Oaksford: Another general question – and this probably would go to any
of you. How long will construction take on any given street? Along a roadway or
feeder line, what’s the expected kind of timeframe?
Scott Placide: I can take this one. Particularly for a specific block, the
construction duration is going to vary depending on other utilities that we may
need to work around and also the scope of work on that street. If there are
multiple facilities that need to be installed, such as multiple transformers, it’s
going to take a little longer to install each of those manholes and underground
vaults. For stretches where we don’t have a lot of facilities and it’s just conduit
that we’re going to be trenching, duration’s going to be less. So it will vary. But
construction start dates are definitely going to be communicated to the
community on when we’ll be starting construction.
Emily Oaksford: I just had a follow-up question about – you mentioned the
communications plan, which is part of the DC PLUG Plan which was approved.
In detail, what does that involve aside from doing presentations? Is there any
opportunity moving forward for the public to provide insight or comments that
could impact the project?

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Scott Placide: There will be a phone line, where you can call with questions
about the project or to talk to someone involved with the project. Our
communication plan was part of our filing with the Public Service Commission, so
we filed that plan, and we’re waiting to hear comments back from the Public
Service Commission, so there could be some additional stipulations to that plan.
We do plan on having a couple field office locations where community members
may be able to come in and ask questions there. But we’ll have multiple ways
that the community can reach out to members of the DC PLUG project.
Emily Oaksford: I have another question about the transformers that you say
need to be buried under the sidewalk due to servicing of the equipment for your
crews. Of this 163 miles of feeder lines, how many transformers will there be
along a roadway?
Scott Placide: Typically one transformer will feed approximately one block of
customers – you know, sometimes more, sometimes less. In our Triennial Plan
that we filed with the Public Service Commission, we’ve estimated about 500
transformers per year, and that’s distributed amongst the Wards that are affected
by this project.
Emily Oaksford: Do we have any other questions from the audience?
Maisie Hughes: We do. I think someone has a clarifying question regarding the
tree replacement component of the plan, John. Can you explain what a typical
schedule is like if you decide that you need to plant a tree through the DC PLUG
project? For example, as from the moment that you decide that this block needs
to have trees replanted in it, how long can the community expect to wait in order
to see that tree actually planted in that spot? And, also, what are some of the
indicators, like the dots on the sidewalk, the dots on the trees, that you use to
communicate with your contractor about trees that will be removed or replaced.
John Thomas: Yes, so we are planting 8,000 trees, approximately, every year,
City-wide, and we will just incorporate this open space in with our regular planting
program. I’m not saying we’re going to elevate it to some special status of being
DC PLUG. An open space is an open space to us, and we want to get a tree in
there. We have a lot of trees to put in and we’re running out of spaces, so an
open space doesn’t last long, but we are going to still follow the same system
we’ve followed for the twelve years I’ve been here. We plant between October
and May, so it just depends. If your tree gets removed in November, you will
have to wait until the following October for a possible replacement. Say, there’s
trees that get removed; we’re going to mark them for planting and put them in the
queue and the next available planting season is when that will be planted.

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After, typically after July, and maybe sometimes into August, but, typically mid-
July is when we finalize our list for the year. So anything that happens after mid-
July will be used for, not that current season coming in October, but will come in
the following October. And that’s just because we do need to order these
materials from a nursery. We have to find the ability to procure them and get all
the species we need, and then the contractor needs time to get that list and sort
it out and get his crews ready, and a lot of that takes time, that prep time is
needed, so that’s the worst case scenario, but none of these will be missed or
forgotten; they’ll be captured in our system.
So once the tree’s removed, a new work order is made for planting, that’s given
under our planting project, and it just goes into the system and does all the other
planting. Like I said, we’re up to about 8,000 trees a year. So we should have
plenty enough ceiling to get these trees in. I just want to make sure that people
don’t think we’re going to plant it like, literally, when the project crews drive off
and move to the next block, that we’re going to follow right back with trees. That’s
not going to happen just because most of this work… Maybe it could happen,
theoretically, I guess, if they’re working between October and April and we know
about it and all that and the timing is right, but, most likely, that timing isn’t going
to be that fast, so these are going to planted in the next available planting cycle.
Maisie Hughes: All right! Thank you, John, for answering all of those questions.
Also, thank you to Scott and Nathan who are here from Pepco and to, our course,
our advocacy team here at Casey Trees, Emily and Suraj, and all of our
volunteers. Thank you to our Tree Advocates for all your questions today. We
are going to make our best attempt to get the rest of your questions answered.
One quick and easy way to communicate with all of us here at Casey Trees is to
send an email to advocacy@caseytrees.org. And you can also find our direct
contact information on the Casey Trees website. Thank you so much. I hope you
enjoyed having lunch with us, and have a fantastic day.