Utility ID

[DBH]

Hey all- first time poster here but long time tree buzz creeper.

Anyways I’ve looked at two jobs today which both have lines running through what would be fairly easy climbs for some house clearance. What process do you use to determine safety of access? Pictures attached- I’m fairly sure one of the lines is a primary so not planning on going near that, but the others look to be cable/telephone lines.

The home owner is going to call national grid before we make any further moves but figured I’d get the collective input here on this process.

thanks and hope to see you nuts in person sometime.

Dylan

 

[Cereal_Killer]

If you're not EHAP certified none of those trees are technically climbable.
Having said that, several of the side-hustle guys at my work (where we're all EHAP) would definitely do so, I don't do side work at all (and if it were a written up work order on the books it'd all already be figured out) so that's about all I have to contribute...

All I see is 240v triplex and house drops and bell/cable lines, is the 3rd pic what you think may be a primary? Can you take a photo of the insulators on the pole holding that line? That's how we can tell the voltage, my guess is 1.2kV but please do not base anything off that, it's just a guess without more clear photos.

Good luck, sometimes it's better to walk away than get in a mess like that. I don't see there being enough money in that job to cover the cost of fines you could potentially get from the utility and/or OSHA. Anything like that would be on you, not the home owner, and God forbid medical bills and cost of repair / liability if something did go wrong.


Also as a final note, have the home owner call in to the utility and complain and ask them to come line clearance it (no charge to him) then you go in after and clean it up and make repairs.

 

[treesap]

then you go in after and clean it up and make repairs

yeah, dont overlook this

line clearance guys (atleast where I live) dont care about your trees, no proper pruning cuts, bark tearout, saw cuts that dont go all the way thru (Jarraff boom bouncing into stuff in the tree)


I hate those guys

 

[DBH]

Thanks for the replies

Can you take a photo of the insulators on the pole holding that line? That's how we can tell the voltage, my guess is 1.2kV but please do not base anything off that, it's just a guess without more clear photos.

Here's a picture to the best of my ability of the line in question - and yes don't worry I'll be passing on this one - looking into EHAP training now.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[DBH]

yeah, dont overlook this

line clearance guys (atleast where I live) dont care about your trees, no proper pruning cuts, bark tearout, saw cuts that dont go all the way thru (Jarraff boom bouncing into stuff in the tree)


I hate those guys

Yes they have butchered many a tree in my neighborhood. Wish we could bury all the lines and just let the trees grow...

 

[Dan Cobb]

... the cost of fines you could potentially get from the utility and/or OSHA.

I wasn't aware that utilities had the authority to issue fines. I worked for an electric utility for 29 years and never heard of that, but I never worked in Power Delivery. I guess it could depend on the regulations set by the local public service commission.

I'm very familiar with OSHA and the way they levy fines.

 

[Basswood]

What about pole clip from roof? Tie in on other side of building or similar to how roofers do so.

 

[Cereal_Killer]

yeah, dont overlook this

line clearance guys (atleast where I live) dont care about your trees, no proper pruning cuts, bark tearout, saw cuts that dont go all the way thru (Jarraff boom bouncing into stuff in the tree)


I hate those guys

"Those guys" perform a necessary service residential companies neither have the time, the manpower/equipment nor the knowledge/certifications to undertake.
I don't love what they sometimes do to trees and I couldn't do it myself but to hate a whole group of arborist (yes you can call SOME of them that) over "tree morals" is ridiculous. It is a service that must be performed, I'd rather see a swath of trees be "cleranced" than the forest burn down when a gust of wind knocks a limb into a transmission line...

 

[Reach]

Thanks for the replies


Here's a picture to the best of my ability of the line in question - and yes don't worry I'll be passing on this one - looking into EHAP training now.

Thanks for the reply!

As one who used to work on some of those wires professionally, the first thing I always tell people is, if you have to ask what it is, you’re not qualified to be anywhere near it.

However, because you (and most others) will likely ignore that first advice, I’ll identify the lines pictured, from the top down.

The three lines at the top are the primaries - stay FAR away from those. The single bare line below that is the primary neutral. Should be safe, but has the potential in an accident to become charged with the voltage of the primaries, so again, stay FAR away.

The twisted set of lines is a triplex residential service power, 120/240 volts. DON’T TOUCH! That means don’t touch with your hand, your lift boom, your green tree branches.

Everything below that is phone/cable/fiber optic and not likely to be able to harm you, but keep your fingers off anyway as you can easily damage some of those cables, and some of them are REALLY expensive to repair if you damage them. As in tens or hundreds of thousands to repair. Your checkbook won’t like that.

Also, an interesting note on utilities and enforcement of their related laws - the utility has no power of enforcement. They can tell you all they want to stay away, don’t touch, don’t reach over with your crane, but they can’t do a thing about it if you ignore them, besides billing you for any damage you do to their property. The only actual enforcement comes from OSHA, and OSHA regs apply only to employees, so a sole proprietor working alone is not actually regulated by OSHA.

 

[treesap]

"Those guys" perform a necessary service residential companies neither have the time, the manpower/equipment nor the knowledge/certifications to undertake.
I don't love what they sometimes do to trees and I couldn't do it myself but to hate a whole group of arborist (yes you can call SOME of them that) over "tree morals" is ridiculous. It is a service that must be performed, I'd rather see a swath of trees be "cleranced" than the forest burn down when a gust of wind knocks a limb into a transmission line...

not gonna argue that

BUT, they should atleast try to do a good job

 

[Dan Cobb]

not gonna argue that

BUT, they should atleast try to do a good job

I suppose you could say the same about tree service companies, except more so. But we've all seen some hack jobs.

 

[treesap]

I suppose you could say the same about tree service companies, except more so. But we've all seen some hack jobs.

absolutely
especially if im paying someone to trim a tree, do it right, its not that hard

 

[DBH]

to hate a whole group of arborist (yes you can call SOME of them that) over "tree morals" is ridiculous.

Totally agree with this sentiment - a lot of people trying to make ends meet/get the job done... just a shame that it's so consistently an issue especially when the trees in my neighborhood can be far and few between.

As one who used to work on some of those wires professionally, the first thing I always tell people is, if you have to ask what it is, you’re not qualified to be anywhere near it.

However, because you (and most others) will likely ignore that first advice, I’ll identify the lines pictured, from the top down.

Bam! heard that loud and clear Reach - thanks for the info and I am definitely not going to ignore it... this time. Haha the real kicker is it's for my in laws so I'd love to be able to help them out... I guess not getting fried and keeping my tiny checkbook intact is pretty helpful in the long run.

 

[treesap]

Bam! heard that loud and clear Reach - thanks for the info and I am definitely not going to ignore it... this time. Haha the real kicker is it's for my in laws so I'd love to be able to help them out... I guess not getting fried and keeping my tiny checkbook intact is pretty helpful in the long run.

a few hundred bucks isnt worth being cooked lol

 

[Chris Schultz]

@Cereal_Killer I recently enrolled in the EHAP course (haven’t started studying/learning yet…..) any direction or advice? Thanks

 

[Cereal_Killer]

@Cereal_Killer I recently enrolled in the EHAP course(haven’t started yet…) Any advice for my studies?

Literally everything you need to know is in the books that come with the tests, get the main one and all (3 I believe) recertification courses. Memorize the approach distance chart, be able to ID each part and know what it does (not in detail, think along the lines of a CDL Pretrip test)

They like to toss in a trick question, if you see a question you think you've already seen go back and reread them carefully go over both questions. Example:
Q17. A line clearance arborist must maintain X distance from a 69kV line?
A few minutes later in the test:
Q31. A certified line clerance arborist must maintain X distance from a 69kV line?

Obviously that one word makes a big difference on the answer, they didn't omitt the word clerance in question 17 as a typo, they're trying to trick you...

Good luck.

 

[Dan Cobb]

(It's my wife's sweatshirt, thus the coffee stain. She's the klutzy one in our house.)

 

[rico]

a few hundred bucks isnt worth being cooked lol

Power lines are deadly serious son, and you have absolutely no business sharing your unexperienced opinions (4 times) on such matters..For the love of god, please SHUT THE FUCK UP. Lives could depend on it..

 

[treesap]

Power lines are deadly serious son, and you have absolutely no business sharing your unexperienced opinions (4 times) on such matters..For the love of god, please SHUT THE FUCK UP. Lives could depend on it..

all ive said was: line clearance guys should try to do a good job

and a few bucks isnt worth working around lines LOL, maybe you should shut up?

 

[rico]

all ive said was: line clearance guys should try to do a good job

and a few bucks isnt worth working around lines LOL, maybe you should shut up?

Couple quick questions for you Sap.

Do you have any actual experience as a line clearance climber (the guys you say you "hate")?

Do you have any actual experience working around power lines?