Its about the money. I think if you look back to the late 70s all if not all most, housing and commercial were laid underground. The main lines and older developments cost lots of bucks to do.
You have to consider almost every one they bury involves sidewalk or roadway replacement where they dig and use the equipment. A road cost 1 million a mile so if you have lines on each side that cost the utility about 500k a mile that starts to mount up.
I absolutely agree with you. In the long haul it is cheaper than deploying a few thousand line workers and boom trucks to fix the carnage later.
