Brad Good and his REC line crew headed out to the back country of Berryville on an overcast Thursday.
As they worked for the first part of the day, the sun hid behind the clouds and the temperature barely crept to 80 degrees. Their work before lunch? To replace three poles along one section of power lines.
The road back to the right-of-way was unpaved, overgrown and tight as they brought in a large bucket truck and digger derrick, a machine used to bore holes for power poles.
Once parked, and the trucks were set, the crew wasted no time getting to work. They moved with ease in the tight area where grass and brush were waist-high and still wet from the previous night’s rain and dew.
Colby Monroe, an Apprentice Lineman, went up in the bucket truck to disconnect the wires from the old pole. On the ground, Matt Murphy and Austin Dunlap, Apprentice Linemen, and Steven Savage and Aaron Clark, Linemen, prepared the new pole to go in.
“This is part of our ongoing pole replacement project,” Good explained.
Utility poles are made to last upwards of 60 or more years. The poles being replaced had done their part in providing safe and reliable power for decades, and the new, sturdier poles the crew put in will do the same.
While this is routine work REC’s crews do to maintain a strong infrastructure, each pole replacement is unique.
The first pole the crew tackled came out with relative ease. The second pole needed some help. Using water to soften the ground allowed the crew to wriggle the pole out. The third pole was more hands-on, requiring additional tools to help dislodge it.
To the crew, this was all in a day’s work. This was just the first half of their day, just part of what they do to build and maintain a strong infrastructure so that members have safe and reliable power.
“These guys are dedicated to their job and to the members,” Good said. “Everything they do, no matter the weather or circumstances, is for the members.”
