PP&L Pays Us a Visit

Several months ago, we reported that the 2019 Snowmageddon Event was over.  Well, we misspoke. 

The major damage on our property was a huge cedar limb nailing a pole down the hill below the house. That yanked the wire for several poles up and down the line.  The yank split the pole about 35 feet from our front deck, along the driveway. 

That pole has a cross arm holding the lines coming from down the hill.  The banner photo at the top of this page shows that cross arm and the actual split. Below that is a cross arm that carries power west to Cheryl and Jerry.  Below that is a transformer. Running down the side of the pole are two conduits supplying underground electricity to our house and to the Ellises, our neighbors up the hill.  It is a busy pole.

Originally, the lineman thought it could be repaired.   But several others looked at it and determined the pole had to go.  It was too badly damaged.  On June 20, four PP&L trucks showed up with crews ready to do the job.  The day before we had been notified the power would be out from 9:30 am until 4 pm.  That outage affected everybody on this hill.

It was a very interesting process, so we took lots of pictures.  Neither of us had ever seen a power pole replaced. 

 


There were 3 bucket trucks plus one plain ole truck.
You can't see all the trucks, but you can see all 3 arms of the bucket trucks.
The plain ole truck left to turn off the power somewhere down the hill.

As soon as the guys got up there, they started disconnecting lines.

Power lines draped everywhere across the front yard!

Lines were disconnected and the transformer removed. Next they chainsawed the top off the pole.

There goes the top.

The conduit containing the wires to our house and Ellises' was detached from the pole.

While the bucket guys were working in the air, the ground crew was prepping the new pole.
The new cross arms are fiberglass, not wood!
Everyone was working in a very tight space.

Parts waiting to be installed on the new pole.

Time to pull the old pole out of the hole.

Little by little it was pulled out of the ground.

The old pole is swinging free.

Of course, they wanted to put the new pole a few inches (9 or 10) away from the first hole.
Out comes the BIG auger.
Up until this point we had been merely observers, watching and photographing the process.  That all changed when one of the guys asked us if it was OK for them to toss that yucky, muddy goop out of the hole over in the bushes.  NO! It is not OK.

We dashed to the barn and brought back 2 wheelbarrows.  They filled those in nothing flat.  So Dianne brought the tractor and trailer.  We shoveled the clumpy mud from the wheelbarrows into the trailer.  The guys quickly refilled both.  We were so involved, we had to stop taking photos.

Bringing in the new pole . . . . very carefully, as we have plants and the Danu statue back there.

New pole approaching the hole.

Just about set.
This is when they brought out the high technology to align the pole.  The pole needs to be straight.  This guy's version of a plum bob really impressed us.

"A little over to the right."
The weight is visible just right of the truck panel's handle.  WOW!  That is whiz-bang stuff they use.
This was east-west.  Another guy was checking out the alignment north-south, using similar technology.

They packed the dirt back in the hole using the neatest gizmo.
It was an air pressure tamp. It packed that dirt tight as concrete.

Reinstall all the parts and pieces.

Reconnected the lines, flipped on the power and it worked!
It came back to life at 2 pm, two hours earlier than planned.
Great job, guys!