D142 Line Rebuild

Michels Power, Inc. crews performed all civil construction, drilling and line work during the rebuild of an 18-mile full line to install fiber optic communication capability between substations, and to upgrade obsolete wooden structures and wire. The project included changing 198 existing wood structures to light-duty steel structures; replacing existing 336 ACSR conductor with 1272 ACSS; and replacing existing 3#6 copperweld static wire with .646” optical ground wire (OPGW).

This was one of the first transmission voltage projects on the East Coast to perform conductor and shield wire pulling operations while keeping the circuit energized. This was accomplished by moving a phase out to a temporary fiberglass crossarm and tapping to temporary strain bus installations at the extents of each pull section to transfer load from phase positions 1, 2 and 3 to temporary phase 4 as a new conductor phase got installed, thereby always having one de-energized phase position to allow pulling to take place. The majority of structures on this project were replaced using live-line barehand construction methods. The line was originally built in 1948.