Tips & News - April 2012

We knew that Hubbell Power Systems had taken over Chance and we have a good relationship with our Hubbell representative, Roger Melanson, so we called him and he said he could definitely help us out. He put us in contact with Shawn Downey, a Hubbell helical pile and anchor expert, who came out for a site visit in early 2009. For that meeting, we brought in Hydro One’s Engineering Design Team. Together, they reviewed the soil characteristics and defined what load the piles would have to support. (Knowing that we would need good load bearing data on the soil at the site, we drilled pins into the ground and measured the torque. What we found was about 7 feet of poor material and below that good, load-bearing clay.) The team also considered the length of the pile sections. There were some concerns about clearance with the tower during installation. Consideration was also given to the torque capacity of our drive motor. After the meeting, Shawn Downey went back and designed an anchoring system that would meet all of our requirements. He was very accommodating.

HydroOnealsoconsideredallpossibleenvironmental issues and concerns. Thankfully, the site was not in a “special treatment area.” That is something we check anytime we need to enter a right-of way. The Big Fix Permanent repairs were made early in 2009. The work was performed by the Sudbury Travelling Line Crew under the direction of Rob Beange. Rob is the Crew Supervisor (or Union Trade Supervisor II as it is referred to at Hydro One). Rob and his crew came up with some innovative ideas that allowed the work to be safely and effectively executed. It was a really good project. It was something interesting, and I know the crew enjoyed the work. The crew installed the piles at the three towers in two days. The work would have been finished sooner, but there was some distance between the towers. It took one day per tower to finish the work. To begin, a drive motor was installed on an excavator, which was used to install the helical piles through the weak soil and into the underlying clay. The crew used an excavator rather than a radial-

Marshy landand tight clearancesmade the job morechallenging.Note the jigon the right that lets the drill operator visuallycheck thedrillingangle.

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