Southern California Edison has energized 7.5 miles of underground distribution lines in Altadena, company officials said this week. By the end of 2026, the goal is to have an additional 11 miles completed as the town, and the utility company, look to “harden” in the wake of the Eaton fire.
A team of crew members with SCE contractor International Line Builders, Inc. laid pipe about seven feet under Lake Avenue this week.
This crew is one of several contractor teams working across Altadena as the utility marches toward undergrounding more than 60 miles of power in Altadena in response to the Eaton fire’s devastation.
The workers, their equipment and vehicles took up one lane of traffic on Lake with traffic control coordinated between two crew members allowing traffic from both directions to use the one open lane intermittently.
Once the pipes were in place an excavator dug more trench heading north on Lake to continue the process.
All around the work site, in front of Charles Farnsworth Park near Mount Curve Avenue, several residential construction projects were underway combining sounds of saws, hammers and framing that filled a once barren and empty town immediately following the fire.
Now, several parts of town are buzzing with construction activity. A variety of vehicles try to navigate the crowded roads. Several head to and from a work site.
Bradley Pensak, SCE’s senior manager of targeted undergrounding and wildfire rebuild, said property owners with standing homes in the fire area that would like to continue using overhead power can do so. However, those rebuilding within Edison’s undergrounding work plan must connect to the undergrounded lines.
He said the project area in Altadena is completely different from a commercial or residential development that builds out in phases.
“Out here, there is no real pattern to it,” Pensak said.
On a drive around Edison work area, Pensak pointed out temporary power lines put up by private contractors and Edison. They went up after the fire to provide power during a rebuild but that will be taken down as more of the grid goes subterranean.
“We are working to prioritize our work to take place where the most rebuild is happening,” Pensak said.
On Alta Pine Drive, one street north of the active work zone on Lake, evidence of a completed undergrounded system can be seen from darker, fresher asphalt over the existing road that show the outline of the system. One main line running vertically with the road and several connections branching off that line horizontally to individual properties.
Some properties along the branch connected to an empty lot.
“Maybe they don’t start till next year, but we’re already done, they know that they’re undergrounding,” Pensake said. “They can come to us when they’re going through their process.”
Edison officials said Altadena residents are not charged for the work done by the utility in the public right of way. The costs come from work done on a homeowner’s private property to connect with Edison’s underground power.
Edison is directing residents and contractors with questions on rebuilding and undergrounding is the Altadena Rebuild and Community Hub (ARCH), at 2680 Fair Oaks Ave. It is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments can be made at edison.com.
Residents can also reach Edison by phone at 1-800-250-7339 on weekdays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Not everyone is pleased to have the utility company setting up shop in Altadena.
Edison’s culpability in starting the fire that leveled Altadena, taking lives and properties, was finally confirmed in a report released last month by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The report concluded that electrical arcing from an out-of-service SCE tower was the cause of the fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed or damaged more than 9,000 homes and businesses.
A sign on a burned-out lot on Fair Oaks across the street from the ARCH put the feeling succinctly. “Edison Did This,” it read.
In April, the Altadena Town Council voted to send a letter to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger urging the pause of Edison’s work due to unaddressed questions about the undergrounding plan.
The letter cited undue financial and planning burdens on homeowners as well as harm to the town’s already depleted tree canopy.
Altadena Town Council President Nic Arnzen said the number of complaints from residents has dipped since that letter was sent.
He said Friday that undergrounding is the right direction for Altadena, but how the work is happening has seen mixed reaction from the community.
Edison is working to get the work done as soon as possible to be ready for people rebuilding, he said.
But “in doing so, it worries, justifiably, some community members that they’re doing it too quickly,” Arnzen said.
Arnzen pointed to the Northern California town of Paradise for the precedent of a utility taking an extra step in helping a community post-disaster.
Through conversations with Paradise Mayor Steve Crowder, Arnzen learned that once Pacific Gas & Electric Company was found to have caused the Camp fire, the utility committed to covering the cost of connecting private properties to underground power on the street.
A formal request has not been made to Edison to follow in PG&E’s footsteps, but Arnzen said he hopes SCE leadership is listening.
“It’s the transparency that’s going to be what puts the community at ease,” Arnzen said of SCE’s ongoing work.
Last month, Altadena leaders expressed frustration over the lack of relief funding available to offset the costs to local homeowners connected to Edison’s underground power. County officials said relief dollars from its FEMA grant application are not expected to be available until the end of 2027 and cannot be paid out retroactively.
Estimated costs for Altadena residents connecting to underground power have varied drastically. Ciara Barnett, with L.A. County Public Works, said at a Town Council meeting that officials estimated it could cost about $24,500 per property based on a typical size lot.
However, Edison has said the average cost for property owners is $8,000. According to Edison, costs that could lead to higher estimates include trenching, conduit, landscape/hardscape restoration, panel upgrades/relocation and nonelectrical utility work.
Arnzen said that in early July Altadena crossed the threshold of being the most neglected disaster in recorded U.S. history, based on how long the town has gone without federal aid. He said any tension between the town, county and state distracts from that larger reality.
“We’ve made miracles without it,” Arnzen said.