Power Play-What's the Power Company Up To

[Willis]

You've likely seen the wooden trail being constructed to the high tension power tower on Rt 9. There are apparently plans to utilize some extremely massive equipment to upgrade the transmission lines. I know I saw a reference to the project somewhere. Would any of our viewers care to elaborate? The wooden pathway looks as though it's built of pallets, but a closeup view reveals these "pallets" are constructed from 3-4"x 8-10" slabs of wood fastened together with carriage bolts-pallets on steroids.

Click the pics for larger views

[John]

This is not a trick version of the PATH project, which was my first suspicion. It is a line upgrade by a different company that runs a line on a right of way parallel to the Allegheny Power lines through Jefferson County.

It will not require additional land or right of way beond what Dominon already uses. The average tower height will be increased by around 22 feet - from 100 feet to 122.

There is a lot of information on Dominion Power Companies "Mt. Storm - Doubs 500kV Rebuild Project" at:

http://www.dom.com/about/electric-tr...torm/index.jsp

Willis's photos are of "travel mats" - designed to spread the weight of the vehicles that will be bringing in the new towers. I spoke with Michael Harmon, the new County Agricultural Extention Agent, about this a few months ago. They were concerned that the equipment would compact soil to the point that crops would not gow in the wheel tracks for several years. The "travel mats" are supposed to address this problem by speading the weight out along the wooden surface - like a giant snow shoe.

A pdf showing the relative size of the old and new towers is at

http://www.dom.com/about/electric-tr...structures.pdf

[Willis]

This sounds like a splendid opportunity for a future photo op of the process. I hope you camera bugs will be ready to take some pictures.