What is "undergrounding"

vb. (present participle of underground English)

Undergrounding is the replacement of overhead cables providing electrical power or telecommunications, with underground cables. This is typically performed for aesthetic purposes, but also serves the additional significant purpose of making the power lines less susceptible to outages during high wind thunderstorms or heavy snow or ice storms. Undergrounding can increase the initial costs of electric power transmission and distribution but may decrease operational costs over the lifetime of the cables.