Many different kinds of work seem to pickup with the weather. Maintenance work for the already busy utility SaskPower is a prime-example.
SaskPower announced the annual return of their province-wide preventative maintenance program on May 23. West-central Saskatchewan is part of the early work this year as part of the North Battleford and rural area, that work commencing in the region until likely August.
Inspecting approximately 105,000 power poles this year, SaskPower spokesperson Scott McGregor gave the breakdown of the work locally. McGregor shared that crews will be inspecting about 17,000 poles in the rural area around North Battleford, one of the bigger areas they have to deal with.
It's important work that needs to be done year-to-year. If they can identify a problem and fix it, SaskPower can avoid the hefty replacement fees.
"It might be a certain line in one area, then nothing else for kilometres around. As we do this annual inspection, we identify different areas based on potential age of infrastructure, potentially the location. If it's closer to wetlands or to a body of water then typically that moisture causes our wooden poles to decay and deteriorate a little quicker."
The work in west-central is just as important as the work in east-central.
"You think about how much of the electrical grid that these wood poles hold up, it's a pretty significant piece of infrastructure. We have to make sure we are maintaining it, and make sure it's not becoming damaged or decayed, without us being able to identify those instances."
From Estevan to Prince Albert, and everywhere in-between, the inspections usually end sometime in the fall.
Wed, Jul 17, 7:30 PM
