update on my power pole

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Going back to this thread.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3735289/4

They put in one of the new poles today. I guess everything went ok. My wife was able to get the HF generator running and got moms Oxygen generator up. Were out of power for 5 hrs.

But I still do not understand the reasoning behind this. They removed the old pole. Put in a much larger and taller one in it's place. Then they installed another shorter pole right next to the new big one.

My old pole had a 1958 date nail on it. the new short one has a 1955 date nail on it. Why pull up a 1955 pole to install it somewhere else then cut the top off vs burring the old existing pole deeper?

And the pole on the hill is not the one the guy was really worried about. He said the one in my yard was too shallow. The one they replaced was 30ft tall and buried 6 ft according to the dirt on it.


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My wife somehow managed to block out the new pole with the old one in this pic she took.

 
Originally Posted By: Warstud
Maybe 1955 isn't actually a date. Maybe it's a pole number.
I asked before. Its the date the pole was originally installed. Next to the date nail is one that shows the length.
 
From Wikipedia:
Datenails are also found on utility poles, sometimes in conjunction with a nail showing the height of the pole in feet. The types of nails may have distinguishing characteristics, such as the datenail having raised digits and the "height nail" having incised digits. The pole height will be a multiple of five (e.g., "35" or "40").

Then there's this, from a utility pole fan page:
The poles we use typically are 40' for secondary (house current) circuits and phone only, 45', 50', 55', 60' for Distribution Primary Circuits (5Kv, 15Kv, 25Kv) 70' for Transmission Circuits (however this is rare as most transmission will be on metal towers)
 
That isn't what I consider desert, looks more like
a typical Cali valley area. Which is mostly scrub
and grass.

Desert is more like the areas farther east of LA, like
29 Palms, and Joshua Tree S.P.

I remember when my family drove out to look for a
Christmas tree one year decades back to near 29 Palms
(supposed to be a tree farm near the area) and we could never find it!
We had just moved to the LA area months earlier and I certainly was stunned as a kid to believe that any pine trees could be successfully grown in the low desert of southern ca.
 
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There are utility pole fan pages? Lol!

Despite my comment about Obama money in your original post, I'm sure they had a reason for replacing the pole. Transmission maintenance is an expensive part of the power grid, plus you have a for profit power company so I'm sure they weren't throwing money out the window.
 
Since the guys were there doing the job why not just politely step up and speak to the foreman and ask if he knows the particulars, I bet he does, since he's probably been doing that job for a long time. It would be interesting to know all the specifics.

I'm not surprised that there are forums that discuss power poles and such, after all this is a site dedicated to motor oil.
I'm sure the power pole fans are laughing at us too.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
You arent kidding when you say you live in the desert. Lol.


Looking west


Stark beauty......
 
We have an old rural proerty built in 1929 that didn't see electrification until 1953. Our power pole is a lodgepole pine with a branding burned in that says IDAHO 1949-still in great shape. Our place in the city just got the very bad original pole replaced last year-no way to see when/where it came from, but the area was developed in the late 40's=new pole in, the lines transfered and the old cut down.
The nearby freeway lights were replaced with the 'Obama $' and the new were placed about 6 feet away and were about 6 feet shorter. They did a 'burn-in' for about a week along with the original still working. The lighting, cone, and color appeared to be the the same?? Hopefully more efficient but the 'payback' time might be measured in decades(centuries?!).
 
Are their any wires on the old pole? When they replace a pole the electric utility will swing their wires and top the old pole. Its up to the other utilities on the pole to swing their wires and remove whats left of the old pole.

Looks like a standard 30-40 pole upgrade.
 
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The utility company is in the process of updating their infrastructure-what's the problem with that? It happened here a couple years ago; they replaced all of the small, older poles that had a habit of breaking in ice storms.
 
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