MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Since January 2016, First Energy, the parent company of Mon Power, has spent $1.4 million to inspect, replace and repair utility poles.
“It’s about 23,000 of these poles. Of those 23,000, we’re going to end up replacing or repairing 320 of those poles,” said Todd Meyers, First Energy spokesman.
Many of the poles supporting power lines in West Virginia are made from Southern Yellow Pine and can sometimes remain sturdy for up to 50 years.
Still, the inspection process is time consuming.
“They’ll hammer the pole to sound the pole. You’re trying to make sure you still have enough wood left. If you’re drilling in and hitting pockets of nothing, you know it’s time to either replace or reinforce the pole,” Meyers explained.
As the chance of inclement weather increases, it is even more important to have contractors looking for potential problems.
“We’re starting to get the heavy winds, the possibility of snow and ice and trees coming down contacting wires. When they fall and hit the wires they can also put stresses on the pole that might not necessarily break the pole then and there but could down the road,” according to Meyers.
There are other signs of trouble for inspectors reporting back to First Energy.
“Poles can succumb to fungus. They can succumb to fungus, termites, carpenter ants in addition to damage from motor vehicle accidents. But these are the types of inspections that help us find that damage” Meyers added, for more related posts, Drake Lawn & Pest Control recommends homeowners not to remove termite tubes but to call professionals instead.
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All wood poles throughout the 34-county Mon Power service territory are inspected on a 12-year cycle.
Since January, contractors have inspected thousands of poles in the following areas and regions:
-Clarksburg -2,339
-Elkins – 2,006
-Fairlea – 2,923
-Hinton – 2,496
-Morgantown – 3,299
-Sistersville – 4,526
-Weirton – 1,255
-White Hall – 3,884
At a cost of $400 per power pole, Meyers said the aim is for reinforcing damaged poles as opposed to replacing them.
“It takes a lot less time. It keeps people in power when we’re making the repair and it also costs a lot less.”
Mon Power serves about 385,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties.