HELCO drill holes in poles Why?

[DTisme]

Wow - now we're all pole-savvy! Love it!

[Rob Tucker]

If the termites eat a creosote treated telephone pole what do you think they are doing to your house?

[whalesong]

quote:

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Originally posted by ef9

I work in the HELCO engineering department and could've answered you.

HELCO contracts out the pole restoration to Osmose. Osmose goes to majority of all of the poles and inspects, tags, records information, and treats.

They drill into the pole and insert an anti-termite chemical into the pole. Even tho the poles are treated at the factory, the termites still eat them. Typically Osmose uses Mit-Z fume which is a safe chemical ingredient used to kill termites.

Osmose then tags the pole and logs the information of the location of the pole (GPS coordinates), what type of equipment is on the pole (transformer, how many phase, etc.), gives the pole a unique serial number for tracking purposes, puts a tag on the pole to note what type of treatment (if given).

Stan

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Aloha Stan, Thanks for replying to this thread.

I think it's time HELCO gets another contractor to do the job right, because they are scamming HELCO and it's customers!

When the contractor came back out to plug the pole they did not put the termite treatment inside, the pole before he plugged it. When I ask him why, he told me it wasn't required. Then, I told him, I had talked to Tony, in engineering and he said, that was the procedure. The guy came back and smart mouth me and said, I know what I'm doing, have a nice day. My reply, I guess, you will be hearing from the engineering dept and left. So, I went to check the other pole and they didn't even plug it. So,I had to call Tony back to have him call the foreman to come back to do the pole they missed
So, my poles have the metal stake plug, but no termite treatment.
So, I would advise everyone to still double check your poles, this contractor is doing a half ass job!
Why they drill the hole and come back to it later is wrong. If they don't have the termite treatment and plug before drilling, they shouldn't drill the hole and leave it for water to get inside.
Aloha

[Rob Tucker]

Boy, you sure went from wondering what was going on to an expert real fast.

[whalesong]

No expert Rob, I just pay attention to what is said to me by the experts and observe.[]
Aloha

[ef9]

The contractor should've at least plug the hole if he didn't have the chemical to insert. I can see the contractor would drill holes and plug them and not insert the chemical at the time because they can always come back with the Mit-Z Fume. But to leave the hole open and exposed to the elements is not a good thing either.

Thanks whalesong.