After all of the blackouts in Queen Anne over the last year, the neighborhood is about to experience a summer sprinkled with a few more planned power outages. Seattle City Light announced today plans to spend ten weeks over the summer working to extend the life of Queen Anne’s old underground cables by 25 years. How? By injecting the cables with silicone, a process City Light and a company called Novinium say will fill cracks that develop in the protective insulation of the cables as they age, leading to cable failures and power outages.

“Silicone injection is a cost-effective way to increase the reliability of service for our customers while limiting the need to dig up and replace the old cables,” Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said in a press release today. “We are using this process successfully throughout our service territory, including recent projects in Leschi, View Ridge, Laurelhurst and Arroyo Beach.”

City Light plans to begin to project mid-June and says the schedule will involve a number of planned outages.

Crews first test the cables to determine if the injection process can work. If the cable condition is satisfactory, crews come back later to inject the silicone into the lines. Cables found to be in such poor condition that injection will not work, will be replaced.

Residents and businesses that will be affected by the planned outages will be notified at least one week in advance. City Light says almost all of the work will take place between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

City Light will be hosting a community meeting concerning the project on Wednesday, May 26 at the Queen Anne Community Center, Room 3, located at 1901 1st Ave W. Residents are invited to attend and voice any questions or concerns. In the meantime, you can keep track of planned and ongoing City Light construction projects here, or contact Mark Vanoss at (206) 684-3279 or mark.vanoss@seattle.gov.