snow country

[jinglis]

As the City's electrician I was recently called out to look at a situation with deadly potential. No one was hurt this time. It seems that one of our snowblowers shaved off a power pedestal on a boulevard with live 120/240 volts present inside. He was just widening the sidewalk due to the amount of snow we recently recieved. It was a plastic pedestal standing about 18"-20" above grade. I believe he actually pulled the conductors out of the conduits and had them wrapped around the auger. I was a day or two before I got the call ( I'm not sure why it took so long ). The local utility responded immediately and dealt with the issue. The pedestals are installed on the boulevards to feed street lighting. These pedestals are necessary for a disconnecting means for the street lighting circuits. Most of them are mounted in close proximity to the pad mount transformers offering them some protection by location. Others are mounted in the middle of nowhere. There are different styles of these being installed based on the developers design which is reviewed by the City prior to installation. Some are plastic, some are steel and some are weatherproof panels mounted on pressure treated wooden stubs. I don't believe any of these will be suitable to stand up to a snow blower. All seem to be low to the ground for appearance sakes. My concern is the winter months when they become invisible. I know when I suggest they have a minimum mounting height of 3' plus that I will get backlash because of the looks of them. However, safety must come first. It seems when they are installed in the summer months the snow was overlooked. Has anyone else dealt with this hazard or design. What other means of protection could be added to this installation. With spring just around the corner I will have time to research and deal with this but I am looking for some ideas.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I don't know about Ontario but 3' won't do it in some parts of NY. Mexico, NY is digging out of a 9' snowfall. So what options are there-- Perhaps maps of the pedestals since it sounds like the danger is mostly to the city workers. That would be less costly and certainly more attractive.

 

[jinglis]

Good thoughts. 3' doesn't cover all the scenarios. Keep in mind they plow miles of sidewalks and would not memorize or use the maps. One other suggestion was to move these odd pedestals closer to a light standard or flag them for the winter months?

 

[ceknight]

I don't know about Ontario but 3' won't do it in some parts of NY. Mexico, NY is digging out of a 9' snowfall.

Try 13'

Around here all of our curbside fire hydrants are marked by fairly unobstrusive signs that are the height of a normal street sign. When the hydrant gets buried with snow, we still know there's a hydrant there.

It's also quite common to install tall temporary markers around driveway openings and other important things so that plow operators have visual clues about that they should either aim for or avoid when plowing. Sometimes these markers are attractive manufactured items, sometimes they're long wooden stakes with spray-painted ends. But they work, at least until someone steals them.

Couldn't you do something similar with your pedestals?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Try 13'

I don't envy you one bit---At least you don't have to work-- or do you. Here in NC they sometimes close the school with a report of snow. I have seen the schools closed and we didn't get any snow at all-- report was off.
Anyway, I know this may be expensive but is there a monitoring device one could put in the pedestal so that the plow guys could get a beep or signal of some type with a receiver that they would carry? I don't know of any but surely they must make one. Just a thought.

 

[jinglis]

I agree that markers would be a usefull idea. I was hoping to make it a more permanent fix that didn't require annual labour. I also worry about the "what if" they don't get there this year to mark them or miss one. I guess that's being paranoid.

 

[ceknight]

I don't envy you one bit---At least you don't have to work-- or do you.

I'm not in Mexico, fortunately. We missed that lake-effect barrage by a scant few miles. Which is good, because I had enough trouble with the paltry 4' on my driveway last week. I need a shorter driveway.

 

[dartonviper]

Here in MN all the fire hydrants have little springy flags on them that stay on all year long. I'm sure anyplace that gets much snow probably has something similar. They are maybe 61/2 off the ground. Just a thought!