Suggested article on inspecting poles prior to climbing

[CPOPE]

Most lineman have been on a job to replace a rotten pole that has fallen over. We have all heard safety horror stories of a rotted wooden pole falling while beng worked from hooks or a bucket. Occasionally they fall, and when they do, they can cause severe injuries.

While wood poles are subject to stringent standards for treatment, inspection and replacement they still become old, their anti-rot treatment dissipates and they deteriorate. If they are not properly inspected and replaced within the proper guidelines, they can become a hazard to lineworkers and the public they service.

There is a difference between the requirement of a utility to properly inspect their poles and the requirements of a lineman to insure that a pole is safe to climb. In the case of a lineman, the defense will say that he has a responsibility to check a pole before he climbs it. OSHA, NESC and other standards call for the lineman to sound the pole with a hammer and probe it with a screw driver to determine if it is safe to climb. As you can suspect, this mainly applies to lineman who use ladders and spikes to climb poles. The bucket truck lineman are not as much at risk. Many of the lineman use their spikes to sound a pole. They hit the pole extra hard and listen for a hollow sound. Accidents have and will continue to happen with pole structure failure while being worked on. Be cautious when poles are suspect and if in question tempoarilly guy or brace as necessary.

The National Electrical safety code, Rule 214, deals with inspection of lines and equipment, Section A....when they are in service--lines and equipment shall be inspected....Poles should be inspected and tested, records of defects shall be recorded, defects that will reasonably endanger life or property shall be corrected promptly.
The rules say that poles will be inspected as often as necessary. In cold, bug free northern climates, every eight years, ten or twelve years may be ok. The EEI (Edison Electric Institute) standard calculates the frequency of inspection on the number of frost free days in a given geographical region. In a hot, sandy, termite ridden climate such as the Southern states, every three years is not unreasonable.

Inspectors are looking for problems with the electrical services, guy wires, animal guards, damage to the pole from an outside source such as an automobile hitting it, and wood problems in the poles. The most common problem is ground rot. An inspector will dig around the pole approx 18 inches deep and take a core sample of the wood. He will determine the thickness of the outer shell in which the strength of the pole is contained.

A proper inspection should include a "Visual inspection, up and around it, from top to the ground line, look for a split top, ragged top, woodpecker hole, any cracks which are abnormal, plant life growing on the pole, green algae on the bottom. Broken guy wire, broken insulator, street light fixture hanging. The inspector should then sound the pole, bore the pole and measure the outer shell. He will take at least one boring to determine how good the treatment of the pole is, dig down 18 inches to 2 feet, scrape the pole, and look for surface decay. The inspector will then bore again to determine condition of the pole at this location. Any rotten wood he will evaluate. The inspector then writes up this pole, stating that the pole has x inches of circumference left in it, or will say it is good or bad. The inspector will then fumigate if it needs it or inject preservative"

If a pole is starting to show its age, In many areas, professional inspectors will wrap the base of a pole with preservative. This will increase the life of a wood pole. Many Utilities do not do this.

This type of inspection is not the norm. Many Utilities will just sound the pole with a hammer to see if it is hollow. They will then try and probe the pole with a screw driver, trying to drive it in the pole (through the shell). If the pole is soft it needs replacement. If the inspector cannot drive it in, it is good. An Inspector cannot always find the rot with this method and poles will many times deceive the inspectors. There are private contractors such as Osmose and Asplundh that a utility can hire to do the inspections and treatments. How well a utility maintains their poles is generally an indication of how well other aspects of their business is run.

[scammy]

whats your point? ,,scammy

[CPOPE]

whats your point? ,,scammy

Scammy sorry I dod not make my point clear. In the world of deregulation first things the bean counters cut in order to save $ is pole inspection and replacement. Check your pole in the area of work espesially if you are climbing.

An example of what can happen if you do not!

Residents hit with unexpected power outage
06:11 PM PST on Saturday, January 19, 2008
KING5.com staff

Some Tukwila residents received a notice about a power outage planned for Saturday, but the power went out earlier than expected.

TUKWILA, Wash. - Power has been restored to hundreds of Seattle City Light customers after a mishap with a power pole.

City Light was moving poles to accommodate construction of the Sound Transit light rail project when something went wrong. A rotten pole fell over onto a car, knocking out power to about 400 City Light customers west of the Southcenter shopping mall.
The pole fell at 42nd Avenue South and Southcenter Boulevard, causing power to go out 9 p.m. Friday night.

"This was not a pole we expected to go out," said Suzanne Hartman, of Seattle City Light. "Not on the watch list. We weren't in the area. Not related to the work we were going to do today."

The rotted fallen pole spilled 85 gallons of mineral oil into a creek that leads to the Duwamish. Clean up crews were called to the spill site to contain the leak, which never reached the river.

City Light crews had planned a 12-hour outage on Saturday to reroute power lines for Sound Transit light rail construction. The planned outage would have affected 278 customers, but because of Friday night's mishap, about 400 City Light customers were in the dark.

Alfredo Esquivel's family grabbed coats and blankets and wondered what had gone wrong.

"It's cold," he said.

About nine businesses were affected by the outage.

[PA BEN]

Heard about that too. Not sure what happened to cause the pole to go over but it was probably changing strain and ether pull or released something. It's a good practice to check the poles on ether side of your job.

[creeper]

well at my co-op we have this unwritten policy, if it falls down the pole was bad. As long as it is standing it must be good. Been Like this since i believe the mid 80's. Yeah I know makes you check out a pole as best you can before you climb up. Worst part is you catch shit from the older guys if you even pull a hammer out to sound it( guess it just takes to much time)