§ 24-408 Electrical conductors; Manhattan and the Bronx; duties of commissioner of transportation.
AC § 24-408
a. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of transportation to carefully investigate any and all methods proposed by any company for electric lighting or electrical communication by the use of conductors along or across any street in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, and, before approving of any such method, such commissioner of transportation shall require that, so far as practicable, all such conductors when constructed shall be underground. The commissioner of transportation shall have full authority to compel all companies operating electric wires to use the subway prepared in accordance with the provisions of sections 24-407 through 24-409 of the code. b. Wherever, along the streets, in sparsely inhabited or unoccupied portions of such boroughs, the public interests do not require the electrical conductors to be placed underground, and wherever, in any other locality in such boroughs, it is deemed by such commissioner to be, for any cause, impracticable to construct and successfully operate underground the electrical conductors required by any such company, then, it shall be the duty of such commissioner to examine and grant the application of any such company for permission to deviate from such underground system. The commissioner of transportation shall not, however, grant any such permission unless he or she shall be satisfied, upon investigation, that such a permit should be granted for one of the reasons stated above, and that it will not interfere with the successful working of underground conductors elsewhere in such boroughs. Any such permit shall be held and construed to authorize the construction and maintenance of the lines of conductors therein provided for, as and where prescribed by the commissioner of transportation. c. It is hereby made the duty of such commissioner of transportation, in granting any such permit for other than underground electrical connections, to bear in mind the policy and purpose of sections 24-407 through 24-409 of the code, which is to convert the overhead systems of electrical wires and cables now in use in such boroughs to underground systems, as soon as possible, without impairing the efficiency of their service, and to require that, as far as practicable, all electrical conductors in any street in such boroughs shall be removed from the surface and placed and operated underground, as soon as may be consistent with the convenient use thereof by the public. It is intended to authorize other than underground electrical conductors, to be used in the streets, only when and where the public interests do not require the electrical conductors to be placed underground, or when and where it shall be deemed by the board of estimate to be impracticable to place and operate the conductors advantageously underground. It is also intended to make all aerial or other electrical connections merely incidental to such underground methods, and to require that they be authorized only when and where needed for the convenient use of the public or where the underground conductors can be made more useful thereby. d. The work of constructing every line of conductors authorized by any such permit, so granted, shall be subject to the rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioner of transportation. Every such permit shall specify the location of the structures to be erected and to be used for sustaining the electrical conductors, and shall give the general dimensions thereof. e. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of transportation to require that the subway may be used by the city for the electric wires or conductors operated by its police, fire or other agencies without expense, except that of the wires or conductors. The city shall not, however, be compelled to place any such wires or conductors underground until the money has been specifically raised therefor, and until that time the city may continue to use and extend such wires.
