Undergrounding Utilities

Reliability, Resiliency, Safety, and Aesthetics

Power lines and other utilities (internet and cable) have been now been fully buried on Bird Key, Longboat Key, one street on St. Armands Key, and very recently, on John Ringling Blvd all the way to St Armands. It is the clear trend on barrier islands and other areas vulnerable to storms around Florida.  This has been done to make everyone safer, provide better power reliability, and make neighborhoods more visually attractive and hopefully more valuable over time. Leaning poles and sagging wires disappear and will not be falling during storms, and it's far easier and faster for FPL to service pad-mounted transformers which do not require a bucket truck. During the 2024 hurricanes, the one street on St. Armands was only without power for two hours while other parts of the island were without power for a week. On Longboat Key, only a single transformer was lost. Bird Key had some power loss originating from the city but nothing was caused on the island.