BC Hydro has revised its plans to replace its old power poles after hearing Ashcroft Council’s concerns.
“It looks like we did manage to change something,” said Mayor Andy Anderson after reading Hydro’s letter at the Sept, 8 Council meeting.
The Village was alarmed when one of the marked poles fell on their garbage truck on May 6 as it was on its weekly rounds.
The pole that failed, according to BC Hydro Community Relations Manager Dag Sharman, was a “dead end” pole, anchored only on one side instead of two. These types of poles generally hold transformers, and the pole that fell had three.
Hydro contractors had just examined the poles in the area and marked the poles that needed replacing with red dots. The Village was told that these would be replaced in 12-18 months.
“We reviewed our pole mainenance standards in light of the May 6 incident in Ashcroft and made changes effective July 2014 to improve our program and help prevent these types of unfortunate events,” Sharman wrote.
“To address this, the program has been revised to ensure that dead end poles of this species with punky wood are given the highest priority and will be replaced within 30 days of identification.”
The Village will be sending BC Hydro their thanks for the news along with another question about the status of poles that are strapped to the poles next to them.