heres an old pole near the substation installed by calectric and left intact by SCE for the past 49.5 years! the pole carrys a 33kv subtransmission line on the very top and a 4kv primary line beneath the 33kv lines.
most poles here have Narragansett Electric's NECo tags since NGrid had kept using them with new poles til a few years ago. we still have poles from the 50s here in use. it's usually upgrades, car accidents, or the pole starts splintering. sometimes if more than one thing is wrong with an old pole they'll replace it if like for instance, the cross arm is splinteres or bowing and something else needs servicing, they'll just renew the pole rather than install a new cross arm only to change the pole out a coupel years later because it started to rot or something. that's probably one of the big reasons the northeast has so many power outages, the poles aren't kept up with. I've noticed now whenever NGrid installs a transformer or a cable box goes up, if it's an older poles it's removed.
also, how come older poles are brownish and more porus whereas newer poles are a light tanish color and smoother? i've noticed some poles here go up the light tan color and other poles part of the same pole renewal project will be a darker even smoother color and look treated. my street is liek that. all the poles are a light tan color and one is a nice dark color and looks "newer" than all the others.
As it age, it ravages by the Oxygen that attacks everything. Anytime the Oxygen interact with other element, it converts into some form of oxide joined with other element. Like rust
yep wood slowly rots with time. btw here in california the arid climate makes poles last a long time. there are still some over 100 years old in use, even a tiny number of 1890s ones by railroads!
Over here I think we still have some poles in use from the 30s downtown with wooden crossarms holding up the primaries. I think the disused poles by the railroads here are even older.
yeah there are some ancient telegraph poles (on a rare occasion one may have all its insulators) along the bike path in cranston that used to be a train track. some of the poles have lost their cross arms though and others were either taken down or fallen down completely. the wires are long gone though.
Actually some electrical companies uses different wooden poles and style....I noticed PEPCO uses much darker pole colors than BGE, BGE newest poles are greenish tint...
Most of PEPCO poles seem to have been treated with something, not sure but it seems they have some kind of tar or gloss on them. and the poles tend to be much darker.....
Good example here both sides were actually new poles, and the right side is PEPCO note how its darker while the left side are BGE and the poles are lighter....
My utility uses greenish-yellowish-brown poles. Some of the sign and guardrail posts here are cedar though.
IIRC, the dark brown poles are probably treated with creosote and the greenish ones are treated with copper based CCA, ACQ, copper azole type preservatives.
Most of the preserved wood you find at HD or Lowe's is usually ACQ or copper azole.
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also, how come older poles are brownish and more porus whereas newer poles are a light tanish color and smoother? i've noticed some poles here go up the light tan color and other poles part of the same pole renewal project will be a darker even smoother color and look treated. my street is liek that. all the poles are a light tan color and one is a nice dark color and looks "newer" than all the others.
Most of PEPCO poles seem to have been treated with something, not sure but it seems they have some kind of tar or gloss on them. and the poles tend to be much darker.....
Good example here both sides were actually new poles, and the right side is PEPCO note how its darker while the left side are BGE and the poles are lighter....
IIRC, the dark brown poles are probably treated with creosote and the greenish ones are treated with copper based CCA, ACQ, copper azole type preservatives.
Most of the preserved wood you find at HD or Lowe's is usually ACQ or copper azole.