NORWICH – It’s too expensive to bury a power line for 190 miles, New York Regional Interconnect Inc. President Chris Thompson said Monday.

Burying it the full length of the proposed route would also compromise the 1,200 megawatt line’s reliability, Thompson said, claiming that if the power did go out underground, there would be no way of locating where the problem was, “other than digging the line up.”

NYRI is proposing to place just over 6 miles of its $1.6 billion transmission line beneath the surface in the towns of North Norwich and Norwich. In doing so, clusters of homes in on East River Road and Tanner Hill would be spared living near 115-foot-tall overhead transmission towers. City of Norwich residents wouldn’t see them on the eastern horizon, either, as was originally feared.

NYRI has also selected to underground other segments of its line in parts of downstate and the Utica area.

Thompson said the company chose to bury the line in places where it “ran into physical restrictions and obstructions” and couldn’t fit overhead towers through. He claimed they also considered local concerns when making the decision.