March 2005

From Top to Bottom

WEMC make sure poles maintain their integrity

Poles are the skeleton of Walton EMC's electric system. Ensuring that these poles are sound makes your service more reliable and reduces the potential for accidents.

Southeastern Wood Pole Inspectors (SWPI) of Commerce, Georgia makes its way around our ten-county service territory on a scheduled basis to check up on WEMC's 80,000 poles. It takes about ten years for a round trip.

Foreman Kelvin Tatum, Supervisor Jay Allen and President/Owner Fred Norris give this pole a top to bottom inspection.   Norris looks for loose or broken guy wires and missing or broken yard light bulbs, among other things.   Norris and crew actually are able to repair 95 percent of the guy wire trouble they find.   The other five percent require attention from Walton EMC line crews.

Tatum and Allen dig around the base of the pole to begin the structural inspection.   “Eighty-eight percent of all bad poles have a problem at or below ground level,” says Norris.

Tatum uses a gas-powered drill to get access into the core of the pole to make sure the outside shell isn't hiding decay.   A probe is inserted into the hole to delve for soft spots.

The outside of this pole below ground level is found to have a decayed outer shell.   It's stripped away using this spade-like tool.

The sound the pole makes when hit with a hammer also reveals clues to its condition.   A side “benefit” is that crews discover loose hardware at the top of the pole.   “You better have your hard hat on when you're sounding a pole,” says Tatum “because anything loose can come raining down.”

If the pole fails inspection, it's scheduled for replacement.   If the pole is good, it's treated with an environmentally-friendly mixture of borax and sodium fluoride (a type of salt).   The mixture is water-based. Crew Member Jeff Gary applies the treatment to just above ground level.

A heavy paper moisture barrier is applied on top of the treatment and stapled.   This keeps the treatment from leeching into the surrounding soil.

In the final step, Crew Member Lamar Dorsey replaces the soil around the hole.   SWPI uses a tarp to protect grass and lawns from the dug soil.

When the job is completed, the pole gets the SWPI seal of approval in the form of a tag.   This turns out to be the third inspection and treatment of this pol

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