Tips & News - April 2014

Chugach received 112

meter claw & safety shield

nylon thread pin Bracket

full range conductor gauge

TowerPak ® Kits – one box per

Wendling asked that all parts be put in sealedboxes thatwould hold up to the weather and be durable. In the end, Hubbell was the low bidder through their suppliers in Anchorage: Potelcom and WESCO. The cooperative placed the order in October of 2013 for delivery by the end of the year. Despite a big winter storm hitting the East Coast of the Lower 48, everything was delivered on time. “I wanted to streamline the shipping, because shipping things from anywhere to Alaska is an opportunity for something to get lost. Things get lost during shipping. Parts get sent to the wrong destination—like Alabama (AL) instead of Alaska (AK). Or the delivery misses the barge. Or, the shipper has never come this way and isn’t familiar with road conditions, permitting requirements, and clearances. If you were to ask me how many ways things can go wrong…I don’t think I have enough fingers and toes to count them,” says Wendling “So, I wanted to mitigate the shipping risk by dealing with one supplier that could really put everything together in one consolidated shipment.” This project took place in a mountain pass in the middle of winter, where storms routinely dump one to two feet of snow on the ground. “Looking for anything in a foot of snow is difficult. It is the proverbial needle in a haystack. Remember, a foot or two of snow is deep enough to hide a 2’ x 2’ cardboard box. Further, cardboard boxes get wet and fall apart and once a part is out of whatever container it came in, then you’re in trouble,” warns Wendling. TowerPak solved that problem as well. Chugach received 112 TowerPak Kits — one box per tower and a few extra. None disappeared into the snow. Then there is the snow.

tower and a few extra. None

disappeared in the snow.

Crews started, cleared and staged on November 6, 2012, and re-energized the line on April 16, 2013.

Which brings us to TowerPak ® Kits. The cooperative broke the project into four purchases: conductor, wood poles, steel poles, and line hardware. The first three were commodities and arrived in three big shipments. For example, the 168 wooden poles that arrived by rail (close to the site), were trucked to the work zone and staged along the way.

crossarm link stick

5H ball stud grounding system

low-voltage rubber gloves

The fourth purchase order was different.

“I thought it would be great if all the other parts and pieces could be delivered in one shipment, already kitted. We’re talking about specific insulators and hardware. In some cases, we are talking about hardware that was manufactured especially for the project. I wanted to find a way to get all the parts delivered conveniently and efficiently,” explains Wendling. Wendling remembered an article about TowerPak in Hubbell’s Tips and News magazine. “I dug into it a little bit more and found out that TowerPak isn’t usually applied to projects as technically simple as the one we were embarking on. There was some skepticism at the co-op as well, because we’d never done anything like it before. I wanted to make sure that I understood it, so I went out and talked to a number of suppliers and other wholesalers who do kitting. Hubbell was the only manufacturer I found that did it. Some of the wholesalers I approached didn’t think this project was big enough for them to bother with. Regardless, we put together a spec to containerize all the pieces (the insulators, hanging hardware, and the connecting hardware) we thought we would need on each structure.”

cotton liners

canvas glove bags

leather protectors

As a result, the work finished ahead of schedule, with no equipment lost.

To ThoseWho Climb ™

Special thanks to Shawn Wendling, Senior Project Manager, Chugach Electric.

Visit hubbellpowersystems.com/news/ to see our new lineman grade products.

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