Inspecting light poles

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PrimaryElectric

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The city of parkland chief electrical inspector is requiring that concrete precast light pole be inspected at the time of installation. Their requirement is that they watch each pole being set in the auger drilled hole. Any poles set without being watched by the electrical inspector must be removed. I asked this inspector why he is the only municipality I have ever set a pole in that has such a ridiculous requirement. He replied that he has caught 3 electrical contractors in the past cutting the ends off precast concrete poles because they could not dig the hole to the required depth. I guess I have two questions. #1 Does anyone know who's cutting the ends off the poles and making my like so difficult. #2 Has anyone heard of such a dumb thing. I have taken out (14) 30' precast concrete poles buried 10' deep and have tried to coordinate for 3 days now a good time for the inspector and my auger truck driver to meet up to no avail. Day one the inspector had continuing education. Day two the inspection called in for day one did not carry over for day two so we technically did not call an inspection if for day two. Day three is today and somehow we did not officially call an inspection in. Where do I go surrender?
 
I am in agreeance with you that procedure is ridiculous. If an EC wants to do something so stupid, it will catch up with him. If that is his inspection requirement then he should make himself available at your schedule(within reason of course). I would take that to the top!
 
I would file a complaint with the licensing board in your area. I don't ever remember a code requirement to set concrete pole depths. This sounds like an inspector writing his own code.
 
Are you digging each one then setting a pole, then digging another and setting another? Or are you diggin a bunch of them and setting a bunch of them. If it is the latter, perhaps your inspector can just verify the depth, since that seems to be his/her concern.

I agree with the others that it is a bit over the top.
 
I see it as normal.

We can not back fill any electric work until the inspector has been give the opportunity to look at it.

A precast pole base we would have placed in the hole, run the conduits and let it sit until the inspector has looked at it.
 
If you dug them all in FL to set them later you wouldn't get very far, the water table is so high here, dig a couple of feet and you have water. I realize it is not that way everywhere.
 
barbeer said:
If you dug them all in FL to set them later you wouldn't get very far, the water table is so high here, dig a couple of feet and you have water. I realize it is not that way everywhere.
Click to expand...

Here you can never tell, sometimes it will stay dry other times it may flood.:mad:
 
iwire said:
I see it as normal.

We can not back fill any electric work until the inspector has been give the opportunity to look at it.

A precast pole base we would have placed in the hole, run the conduits and let it sit until the inspector has looked at it.
Click to expand...

Key words ; opportunity to look at it

This is from the Mass electrical code .Perhaps where you work the is a similar rule.
Rule 10. Electrical installations shall not be concealed or covered from view until inspected by the inspector of wires within and not more than 24 hours for exterior excavations nor more than 72 hours for interior installations after proper notice to the inspector, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays excluded.

 
Maybe you could ask him if you mark the base and take a snap shot of the base in the hole with a tape measure in the hole showing the depth, he would accept if he can't make on time.
Rick
 
Perhaps real reason is to create a job for inspectors.This is part of why jobs cost so much.Also it might be for the reason the inspector stated.Far too many guys take short cuts and simply dont care.Friday i caught one of my men not tightening ground screws.They will all need checked now and i lost my trust in him.
 
Not about light poles specificly, but about progress inspections... After a while you get a pretty good at calling for inspections on work that's not really done as of the time you make your phonecall. That is, you can often predict how long it will take you to get to the inspectable point, and how long it will take the inspector to get to your jobsite. You can be finishing up about the time the inspector arrives with little loss of production.
 
The inspector finally came out to let me put the poles back in today. He showed up at 10 AM and stayed and watched us put in 5 poles. He left at 3:30 PM and made us stop working. The inspector will be back on Monday around 9 AM at which time he will watch us install the remaining 9 poles. Beware when bidding site work in the city of Parkland.
 
I agree this is such a pain in the ass!!! I had an issue with LADW&P making me call for an inspection to set a precast vault. He wanted to see it being lowered into the ground took me 2 weeks to set up a time that would work for the inspector and my supplier in which the inspector canceled at the last minuite. When I asked why he needed to phisically be there when I was loweing the vault into the ground he really didnt have an answer. Meanwhile this was holding up me getting on the 6 week install leadtime list. You got to love it.

At least he could have made something up that sounded good)

I feel your pain.....
 
If he stayed from 10-3:30 to watch you set 5 poles and he's coming at 9 to watch you set 9 poles that means you have to set 4 poles in an hour so he can leave at 3:30.

You must be the only job he has going in town. If I can give someone an hour I'm doing good.
 
I was in a jurisdiction in Arizona recently that came up with a way to limit cheating in these situations. That was to have the contractor sign an affidavit that all of the installations will be as engineered. In this case it was dealing with generically engineered aluminum patio enclosures. The only way to really inspect these was to be on site during the entire process (impossible as the OP's problem is). So, the affidavit was created. It's kind of funny just how contractors are more likely to comply with codes when they have to sign a piece of paper that says they will..............I thought that's what the license was for....
 
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