Above North Valley Road, Pelham
Scarred hillside, North Valley Road, Pelham
Eversource is replacing powerline infrastructure, which of course means anything tall and green that stands in the way is terminated.
"Sorry about that."
Heavy duty machines
Meanwhile, on Belchertown Road (Rt 9) just over the Amherst line:
8 comments:
Eversource customers, many of them, were without power today due to "equipment failure".
My wife and I were just over there to hike around Buffam falls. Right near the little parking area is a place where they are doing this work. Interestingly, a guy told us that they had cleared an area for the new lines only to discover that they couldn't use it for some reason. They covered that up and planted grass.
The place they hope to go through is has white sand under the soil to some depth - at least 15-20 feet, probably left there by the water course that is now way down slope at the falls. They are involved some sort of huge earthwork back there to try to build a stable footing for the new poles.
Larry, you really want to be careful flying that drone near high voltage transmission lines. Not only is the voltage between any two (of the three) lines higher than any one to ground, but they send off one hell of a strong radio signal as well -- technically electromagnetic radiation.
Ever see those balls that flash at night so planes don't run into lines crossing the river and such? What do you think powers them? Likewise, ever hear them "singing" in the drizzle? That's electricity leaking out of them. I've heard that if you take a standard 8' fluorescent light bulb (the single-pin ones that stores use) and stand underneath these lines (in the right place) the bulb will light up --- I've seen some really impressive video of the helicopter crews who inspect & repair these lines while hot -- they have to bond the helicopter to the wire before the guys touch it or the guys would be electrocuted, even though they aren't grounded.
Signal strength decreases by the square of the distance but if you are as close to those lines as it appears you were, you well may loose control of that drone -- and if you make enough of a short to melt the aluminum cable (it has a center steel strand, but once you melt the aluminum the steel (not as good a conductor) is going to heat up real fast & melt as well -- if you cause enough of a short to melt the wire (which is NOT insulated) but not enough to blow a line fuse back at the substation, you can start a nasty forest fire. People have done that getting kites tangled in high tension lines, there have been some major forest fires started that way...
Not to mention that the ground is not always a good conductor and when you get voltages that high, you can have it traveling some distance across the ground and electrocuting anyone unfortunate enough to be standing in its path. Hence if you had that drone as close as it appears you did (close and above what you have to assume are "hot" wires unless you, personally, have grounded them ----
Respectfully, Larry, that's on the level of you driving through downtown with a .2 BAC -- you don't screw around with these things!
The much-lower-voltage "primary" lines throughout town are 13,600 volts (average) between all three phases (all three wires) and 8,700 (average) volts between any one of those wires and ground. This can (and does) light poles & trees on fire -- you've had pictures of that Larry -- and I've seen it actually light the asphalt pavement on fire as well. (There is then a center-tapped transformer on just one phase that gives you the 120/240 volts for your house, or transformers on all three phases that gives you something like 120/208 or multiples of that, but I digress.
When we were replacing the buried primaries in North Village (the same 8,700/13,600 combination as North Pleasant Street), the backhoe operator "found" a line that was no where near where it was supposed to be -- it put a cigar-sized hole in the tooth of the backhoe, just like putting a lit cigar through wax, and those backhoe teeth are what -- Grade 10 Steel -- those things are tough.
And Larry, those high tension lines have a much higher voltage than this. You don't want to screw with this stuff -- while having lots of cop friends might keep you from getting arrested, it won't keep you from getting electrocuted.
And like the drunk driver, you might wind up killing someone else instead....
My God, the verbiage.
Despite the verbiage, Ed is right here.
It can be worse: 25 years ago, a deep trench was being dug across the UCLA campus. A young guy was down in the trench
with a jackhammer instead of a handshovel, and - holy cigar-hole! - hit a buried multi-kV primary: first it electrocuted him (his muscles contracted involuntarily and he couldn't let go, and if course, nobody could pull him off), then the jack-hammer heated up like a giant toaster, with guy lying (dead, I hope, by now) on top of it - so he quickly cooked and … exploded!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My dad, 40 years ago, was running rubber-tired, self-propelled Ditch-Witch near the street to dig a trench for a water line - there was a buried primary nearby, but it was supposed to be deeper. Luckily, my dad had stepped away from the machine for a moment, and though I was a young teen, I had the the sense (or premonition) to not go over and guide the machine by its metal handle bars - and then there was a flash of what looked like ball lightning around those same handlebars, a huge thunderclap and the Ditch-Witch stopped running - luckily, I didn't become a ghost nor an orphan, nobody was injured, but the power was out for half the township for hours!
That's a lovely story...wow.
I went to lunch late that day (taking my radio with me) -- If I hadn't, I'd been standing there when he found it...
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