AAAAHHHH last day of the work week only a couple hours until quitting time. Cruise right into the weekend…
My phone rings and it’s my General Forman. I’m pretty lucky because he doesn’t micromanage me at all. Just let’s me get my work done. Until an outage or an issue comes in then he buys me. He said a farmer called in to confess he knocked down one of our poles with his tow behind sprayer. When he told me the location of the incident, I responded with a sarcastic Yay. This pole is literally in the middle of frikken nowhere!! It’s over an hour drive north of me. Winding 2 lane narrow roads through wheat fields, then take a dirt road a few more miles, then turn on another dirt road then drop down a steep hill to the pole. Simple as that.
We call it the North Country. Rolling hills and little canyons, no cell service, not a tree in sight and during the summer it feel 20 degree hotter than anywhere else. It’s basically a hell hole
The farmer mentioned that the pole was laying on his sprayer, so I found that skinny pedal on the right and hauled ass out there. He met up with me on a dirt road and was really surprised to see me there so soon. I replied…
He said He could take you right to the pole… perfect!! As I fought my way through the dust cloud left behind from the farmers truck, I got notified that I had a couple other guys on their way to give me a hand changing this pole out. They were headed to the circuit breaker to make sure it was open and install a protective ground on the line to make sure the powerline was truly de-energized and safe to work on.
I had an epic fail moment… I failed to get any photos of the tractor and sprayer with the pole leaned on it… my bad!! Luckily the wire never contacted the sprayer and was still attached to the pole. The wire never even touched the ground. I gave the 3 farmers standing there a little safety lesson on electricity while I waited to hear from the other lineman. They were really interested in how all of it worked and what to do and not to do when powerlines are down. They were really receptive to what I had to say in response to their questions.
Now the line is dead and grounded, and I place a ground at the pole that is down. I was able to lift the pole up high enough with one hand and the farmer was able to pull out of the way. The wire tension pulling up on the pole helped a bit.
Once his tractor was freed up… he was back to spraying’. This farming family owns and maintains hundreds of thousands of acres out here. It’s crazy!!
Looking at the damage to the pole it didn’t seem that he hit it too hard. The pole wasn’t rotten or anything. He must have caught it just right with the corner of his sprayer and added a twisting motion to it… Hmmm Weird
Look at that!! Perfect timing!! As the tractor was leaving here comes the cavalry down the hill… well a couple of them. The other guys are on their way with the Line-Truck and a new pole.
First thing we need to do is get the wire off of the old pole. The wire has quite a bit of upward tension and also a bit of side tension. So before we started untying the wire from the insulators we tied some ropes to the wire and anchored them to the bumper of my truck.
Keeping them tied off to the truck will hold them out of the way while we dig and set the new pole.
About 15-20 minutes later here comes the Line-Truck with a new pole on the bunk. We backed him down into position and got setup to frame the pole.
Then dig the hole with the auger…
and set the new pole
Next release the wire from the bumper of my truck and lift the wire up to the insulators and tie them in. Simple as that. Damn… That’s a nice looking new pole.
This is when the fun began. The Line-Truck got down the hill easy, but getting up the hill… that was a different story. This Line-Truck isn’t a 6x6. Only the 2 rear axles can be engaged as drive axles. The ground is pretty soft and powdery. My bucket truck even had a bit of a tough time getting out of there. Spinning the tires a bit here and there but I managed to get out. It happens a lot where we know we can get a truck truck into a place but the chances of getting it out on its own are very slim.
After a few attempts to get the Line-Truck up the hill, it was time to get out the bumper winches. We hooked the bumper winch from the Line-Truck to my bumper winch.
He started to drag me down the hill at first but the tires pushed the dirt and made a hill in front of each tire. Then the Line-Truck started inching up the hill.
We stopped, I payed out some more winch line so I could get up on flat ground. Then we really started making progress. Got that big ass Line-Truck right outta there!!
All that is left is to make our way around the the circuit breaker to energize this line. On the way there a Lineman always has to admire their work:wink:wink
Time to energize the line… using a hot-stick, pull the ground, install the source side jumper and close the circuit breaker in. It’s actually a recloser but I’m calling it a circuit breaker to simplify things.
We made pretty quick work of that one considering we couldn’t get the Line-Truck up the hill. Now for the long drive back home.
Thanks for stopping in and checking out another edition of A Day With A Lineman. My idea behind this is to bring a little more knowledge and understanding as to what it takes to keep the electrical grid up and going. The lights on, the irrigation pumps running, and all the other many things electricity does to make our lives easier.
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