Line Work

[bennie]

I sometimes discussed line work with Glenn, the gentleman who recently passed on. We were both holders of combination tickets in the IBEW, lineman and wireman.

I worked for the Bechtel Corp. in the 1960's on the 500 KV switch yard and feeders from the Mojave Power Plant in So. Nevada. The feeders went to the main power grid in So. California.

We often had to repair bullet holes in the lines.
I worked with the bucket crew on live maintenance. The pay was time and a half, I think it was about 9 dollars per hour.

We worked out of a bucket truck. The bucket had a Faraday cage of copper braided screening. We wore the specialized conductive clothing for shielding from the electric field.

The bucket was clamped to the line and I wore an ankle bracelet with a braided copper jumper to the faraday cage. I still have my leg iron.

The suits are only required on EHV and UHV lines.
345 KV and above require the conductive clothing.

This procedure is very safe and can be done from fibreglass ladders.

 

[drg]

Re: Line Work

How in the world do you fix a bullet hole in a wire like that??

John

 

[electricman2]

Re: Line Work

How big is the line, something like 3 inches or more ? just guessing. Seems like someone would have to be a pretty good marksman.

 

[bennie]

Re: Line Work

The cable was three 1,275,000 cir.mil. ASCR, per phase. The diameter is 1.6 inches.

In the desert, during the summer, the lines would sag close to the ground. Vandals love to shoot at the insulators.

The power companies hire charter planes to fly the lines for inspections. Some make infra red photographs. A hot spot will develop at the point of The bullet strikes.

I have a friend who flew these missions for So. Cal Edison, in a Cessna 195. I made a few trips with him.

The repair consists of replacing more conductor than is shot away. The replacement wire is wrapped around the outside of the main cable. The messenger cable is usually not damaged. Strapping is used to make a tight repair joint. Infra red skans are often repeated to check the quality of the repair.

 

[tom baker]

Re: Line Work

I mentioned this before, this type of repair work is now done with heliocopters and a work platform.

 

[drg]

Re: Line Work

Thats nice that they have all these modern and safer ways to do dangerous and interesting work like Bennie speaks of....... but a bit of history is always welcome and educational to show how things were done before all these great resourses were common place...........all sides old and new sound interesting about the subject, perhaps you can share also.

John

 

[bennie]

Re: Line Work

Tom is correct, remote locations where a bucket rig can't get into, the line repair is done from a platform on a helicopter.

We had helicopters during my time, but the ROSCO automatic hovering system was not perfected then to make the helicopter stationary.

Helicopters were used for supply and line placement work.

[ March 05, 2004, 05:25 AM: Message edited by: bennie ]

 

[pierre]

Re: Line Work

Bennie
Could you feel the power/electricity? Did you ever get nervous? Were there any serious accidents? How was the educational aspect of the job? Were you away from your family?

Pierre

 

[bennie]

Re: Line Work

Pierre: You can get charged up by standing under 500 KV lines. When you touch a grounded object you can feel the static shock until your body becomes the same potential as the ground.

Sometimes you can see a blue streak running down your finger. This is why the leg bracelet is connected to the Faraday shield.

When working, if you see the blue streak, it means the peanut clip has come off.

I was never scared due to having some very good line hands with me. The company had a very good training program.

When the clip comes off I got a bit tense at first, later on it was only irritating.

 

[highkvoltage]

Re: Line Work

bennie. We have some commonground. I started on a high line crew, 138kV to 765kV. I have bonded on to 765kV. We also had many gunshoot conductor repairs. I never bonded on from a helicopter though, bucket truck and fiberglass platform. Line work is still my first love. I enjoyed working with hot sticks.

 

[bennie]

Re: Line Work

I am curious what Don McClain is doing in Chad.

I worked on the 138 KV lines in Libya.