ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Water Cooled Transformer

That Line Mechanic is re-instating a damaged Earth wire that runs over the tops of the poles.
It shields the phases from lightning strikes.

Thanks Mike, that is exactly what was being done there.

He was wearing his safety harness anyway which is strapped around the pole.

This is a very busy road and to recheck a termination, it is easier to climb the pole via ladder and climbing hooks, instead of reclosing the road and get a cherry picker up there.

He was certainly not aware of this distance photo being taken.

Regards

Raymond

Cheers Ray,
I also take it the the lines below him were de-energised, which would to a degree explain the lack of a bucket truck.
As a note to our US friends, we don't as a rule use spikes here to climb poles, although I have struck the odd old pole without climbing studs and have had to take out the old climbing spikes, really hard on the legs if you aren't used to it!.
Most of our HV poles here are concrete (cement) these days with built in studs, wood is on the way out because of our high moisture atmosphere, although there are TONS of wooden poles all over NZ.