Pole tradition Inspecting our ‘support system’

Osmose crew inspects pole for decay and applies external and internal treatment as needed.
Osmose crew inspects pole for decay and applies exter­nal and inter­nal treat­ment as need­ed.

Aging infra­struc­ture, such as poten­tial­ly decay­ing util­i­ty poles, is one of many areas that York Elec­tric focus­es on annu­al­ly. Aging infra­struc­ture affects ser­vice reli­a­bil­i­ty and can poten­tial­ly cre­ate safe­ty haz­ards. Your coop­er­a­tive is res­olute in pre­serv­ing its sys­tem infra­struc­ture, and active mea­sures are reg­u­lar­ly tak­en to do just that.

Annu­al­ly, York Elec­tric, often through use of con­tract ser­vices, inspects thou­sands of YEC’s 50,000 poles to iden­ti­fy pri­or­i­ty poles that are aging or dam­aged and may need to be replaced. When con­tract per­son­nel are uti­lized, they wear cloth­ing that iden­ti­fies them and often these crews may be trav­el­ing either on a golf cart or ATV of some type.

Pole main­te­nance and inspec­tion begins in Novem­ber in and around the Ogden area along Strait, Steel Vil­lage, Aut­en, Dun­lap Roddey, Fish­ing Creek, Phil Grant, Bor­der, Williamson and Mob­ley Store roads and the sur­round­ing areas. This project typ­i­cal­ly takes two months to com­plete, depend­ing on weath­er. See the map below for the planned route and work area.

Preserving poles

Wood has long been an ide­al mate­r­i­al for util­i­ty poles. They are pro­duced from a renew­able resource which is resilient and extreme­ly resis­tant to oxi­da­tion and cor­ro­sion. York Elec­tric uses CCA poles which are treat­ed with a preser­v­a­tive that fur­ther pro­tects them against bio­log­i­cal degraders that can poten­tial­ly cause them to weak­en. York Elec­tric’s util­i­ty poles have a life expectan­cy of 50 years.

This annu­al pole main­te­nance process is anoth­er way we are look­ing out for you; it improves safe­ty and the reli­a­bil­i­ty of our elec­tri­cal sys­tem. If you have ques­tions about pole main­te­nance and inspec­tions, please call mem­ber ser­vices at (803) 684‑4248.

Pole maintenance and inspection will be in and around the Ogden area along Strait, Steel Village, Auten, Dunlap Roddey, Fishing Creek, Phil Grant, Border, Williamson and Mobley Store roads and the surrounding areas. (Poles to be inspected are highlighted in pink.)
Pole main­te­nance and inspec­tion will be in and around the Ogden area along Strait, Steel Vil­lage, Aut­en, Dun­lap Roddey, Fish­ing Creek, Phil Grant, Bor­der, Williamson and Mob­ley Store roads and the sur­round­ing areas. (Poles to be inspect­ed are high­light­ed in pink.)

 

Related Link:

‘Cut­ting back’ on poten­tial out­ages