Cutting a power line

I live on a new development in Andover, UK. Before this was built there was a high voltage line across the site. This has now been replaced for about a mile with an underground line, so the visible line now has a gap in it. I have corrected the position of one of the towers, which was easy to do as it now straddles a pre-existing footpath. I should be able to fix the other end with respect to ground features.

The problem is that I don’t want to have to delete the line and put it back manually as it goes on for miles in both directions. Is there a way of deleting a bit in the middle so that I can now put the ends in their right places?

Yes, in most editors there is a little cut tool. In the iD editor select a node where the line goes underground (for simplicity use the last pylon), right mouse click and a little context menu comes up: scissors are third one down. Repeat on the other one. Your line should now be in three pieces. Select the middle one and change it from power=line to power=cable: you may need to scroll down to the all tags part of the left window and where it says power=line type over the line with cable (it should autocomplete). You can then also add at the same point location=underground and fixme=old overhead route, new route not surveyed (or similar).

The real OSM geek would go & find the little concrete markers for the underground route: but life it probably too short. :slight_smile:

You should never delete and re-add.

All the editors will allow you to split a way at a node. Details depend on the editor you are using.

For example, with iD:

Select the way.

Right click the node on the way, corresponding to one new end point.

Use the scissors tool.

Repeat for the other end of the deletion.

Select the deleted segment

Right click and use the rubbish bin tool.

The more subtle bit of the process is doing this in a way in which you don’t delete the original way, so that there a complete history on all of it. On JOSM, I have switched direction temporarily to ensure the right bit gets left.

You may find that nodes representing pylons on the deleted section remain, in which case remove them individually.

Thanks for the advice. I may not have got this exactly right but I hope it helps.

The end towers are now in the right places and the middle bit is now underground.