I'm all, Whew they made it outside....man.. .that was clo--OH GET AWAY FROM THE POWER LINES!! You're RIGHT UNDER THEM! GAH!

Two things came to mind, one is that I am curious as to how much of this really is the ground shaking, and how much is the person filming it shaking from being scared..


..and two, and I'm going to hell for this, but I kept expecting to see Godzilla.

...also, did they leave the safety of their house to stand underneath POWER LINES!?

*quality

Ha, reminds me of the time when a large communication company set up a cell tower near my old place. Many of the folks were complaining about migranes caused by the emissions -- which was fucking brilliant, because they hadn't even connected the power lines yet, much less turned anything on.

>> ^reiwan:

Did it suddenly stop because a transformer blew somewhere along the power line?

The overcurrent condition was detected and automatically activated a circuit breaker (it stopped too quickly to have blown out a transformer).

>> ^FlowersInHisHair:

I'm surprised that there was no redundancy in place for the demolished power line, given the large area of the city that was affected...


According to the news story, the building it landed on housed the backup generators.

I'm surprised that there was no redundancy in place for the demolished power line, given the large area of the city that was affected...

The tower appears to have landed on some kind of small structure. Several small explosions were seen, probably from the fallen power lines.

Don't be so naive. The small structure was filled with government documents and the small explosions were from bombs planted by government operatives.

When the tower started to fall I figured they were far enough away and over-reacting, but then when the camera panned I realized they were underneath the power lines. Yikes, that could have been very bad.

Your video, Electric Power Line Explosion, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'China, Electrocution, Power Lines' to 'China, electricity, Power Lines, electric shock' - edited by xxovercastxx

Tags for this video have been changed from 'China Electrocution Power Lines' to 'China, Electrocution, Power Lines' - edited by Zifnab

Lesson of the Day: It's not polite to point.

Oh yeah... and don't play with power lines.

I see 4 major problems with this...

I see is tires running on a wet glass road. The glass is a lot flatter than asphalt, and so hydroplaning will be far more prevalent unless specific tires were made to cope.

Further, the cost issue will be catastrophic. Solar panels are very, very expensive. Manufacturing solar cells these days is a fairly dirty process, with many very hazardous bi-products. Producing enough solar cells to cover even just major roads would be problematic.

There is also a huge issue of light pollution. Upward facing LEDs replacing road lines is going light up the night sky to absurd degrees, especially in the already light doused cities.

And finally, there is the issue of shifting roads. No matter where you are, soil is always moving. Look outside at the nearest street and see if you can't find a crack due to soil shearing. This will be especially bad in certain geographic locations. Breaking of the roads will require challenging repairs and custom peices to be made. Further, if the roads are replacing power lines as was suggested, power outages would occur as a result of these road breaks, and restoring power will take as long as it takes to fix the road, weeks probably, longer if there is severe damage from natural disasters, earthquakes, etc.

I love the ingenuity, but it is just not practical...

What do these common road contaminants/applicants do to it?

Oil, salt, rubber, tar (because we're not going to be able to do all roads at once obviously), rocks, dirt, rust flakes, hydraulic, transmission, anti-freeze, various other car fluids, gasoline spills, diesel spills.

If an accident occurs how easily is the glass scratched, how much damage can it take before it needs a full replacement.

When replacing/repairing them, how long does it take? Is it cheaper to repair/replace them than it would be to maintain asphalt. How long do they last? Asphalt can go 10-15 years on parking lots if maintained and not overly abused via spills. Roads vary due to traffic and how smooth they are, plows eat them alive when they begin to hump/buckle or become misshapen in some way.

If one breaks or is damaged....does it affect the power generation? How much so? Will it take out city blocks of power like a power line going down?

What if a water main bursts under it or near it....will it support the weight if the foundation is washed away? Will it heave up in a big panel making the surface uneven? Will it breaks the other panels when it does this? Or cause some other damage due to the feed being broken?

How does it handle snow, ice, dust, fog, mist. Extreme temperatures. Can they be salted and plowed or do they self-clear snow somehow?

Most cracking and uneven-ness in road surfaces comes from the foundation below it, some people call them structural cracks..like the foundation of your house might get because of settling. It's also a telltale sign of problems below the surface of the road, masking that problem may not be a desirable quality even though it makes it a more convenient road surface in the meantime. It's like pothole versus sinkhole problems....I'd rather blow out a tire than have my car swallowed by the road.

If they keep this primarily to freeways they can avoid most issues with water mains, gas lines, sewer, etc. But they'll still have storm drains and the underground pipes associated with them, not as much of a big deal if they leak...but if they were to be plugged and a big rain came it can cause havoc with roadways above and below the surface...they don't plan for the water to start flowing up from beneath the roadway.

Finish grade asphalt and concrete work is pretty fast moving stuff when everything else is ready. It's all the sub grade work that takes months and even years.

Be great if it worked, but maybe they should start with sidewalks or bike paths...military base applications...they see some heavy equipment rolling through there, if it lasts through those....

So what you're saying is people on the gulf should start praying for a drought during hurricane season? God forbid anything should be on fire and it starts raining. I said it before, I'll say it again: oily hurricane + downed power line = FIRECANE!!