from Hacker News

Open Infrastructure Map

by bearbin on 1/15/22, 5:47 PM with 45 comments

• by AceJohnny2 on 1/15/22, 10:51 PM

  Nice! I can finally locate LA's Scattergood-Olympic underground transmission line that was repaired in 1989 to much engineering prowess [1].

  https://openinframap.org/#10.58/33.9452/-118.3529

  I love infrastructure engineering. There's so much going on that allows us to take things for granted. Even the 2021 Texas power grid failure fared relatively well for how close it skirted absolute disaster.

  [1] https://practical.engineering/blog/2021/9/16/repairing-under... (I should give Grady more money) People here may remember jwz's post on the topic in 2002, copying the emails from 1989 (note the following link may display something unsavory with the HN referrer, in which case copy-and-paste it): https://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/

• by hamolton on 1/15/22, 7:54 PM

  Looks like OSM doesn't have a ton of data on US pipelines or water lines. It's understandable. I do wonder if tools like this would encourage more mapping of these.

• by karussell on 1/15/22, 8:24 PM

  Impressive data collection from OpenStreetMap (as always :)).

  It would be great when wind power sources could be highlighted like solar sources and when wind & solar are more visible by default. Even solar power parks appear only on larger zoom scale (in my area).

• by bertil on 1/15/22, 9:16 PM

  I noticed that the nearest power plant nearby isn’t here. It’s really small, so I’m not surprised but I’m not sure how to flag the discrepancy and share details about the station.

• by mackman on 1/16/22, 1:18 AM

  Anybody know how much trouble you’d get in cross country skiing or snowshoeing along the routes of these big power lines? They clear all the trees and brush and it looks like it would be a great alternative route to get around in winter. All those no trespassing signs have me spooked.

• by szundi on 1/15/22, 8:16 PM

  Aren’t these national security secrets?

• by fjfaase on 1/15/22, 8:27 PM

  In August and September 2007, I spend some tracking all major power lines in the Netherlands using Google Earth. Interesting to see that the information provided on openinframap.org is much more detailed.

• by blhack on 1/15/22, 8:57 PM

  This is incredibly detailed. Really neat.

• by cozzyd on 1/15/22, 10:13 PM

  Definitely see some transmission lines missing (e.g. the line going through the Fish Lake Valley in Nevada), but I guess it's a WIP. I'll probably figure out how to contribute...

• by jcims on 1/15/22, 9:46 PM

  Would be difficult but interesting if they included proposed projects. There are 36 square km of solar farms planned in west central ohio that don't show here at all.

• by pleb_nz on 1/15/22, 8:19 PM

  Like the growth of bacteria on a petri dish

• by aero-glide2 on 1/16/22, 4:23 AM

  Why can't osmand~ scroll as smoothly as this site?