Power boosters
Line crews thrive on working above it all
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This is a high-wire act laced with 345,000 volts of electricity to make it interesting.
For the overhead line workers at power company
"We chose to do this. It's a different job, but it's nice being outside with a sense of independence," said Robert Sprague, 49, of Plymouth, an 18-year veteran of line work for NStar. On this day, he and his crew were doing maintenance on power lines that run from the Cape Cod Canal power plant through Carver and into Bridgewater. "You're out here away from other people."
The work is long and arduous, necessitating driving heavy ladder trucks down rugged dirt access roads and setting up on hilly terrain, breaking out the safety gear, tools, and equipment in all kinds of weather. "You either like this work or you don't," said Don Boudreau, manager of the Plymouth district for NStar. "When you get out here, everything's bigger and heavier."
High-tension wires carry 345,000 volts of electricity. (By comparison, household current is 120 volts, an electric chair is roughly 2,000 volts, and a bolt of lightning is 1 billion volts.) Despite the seeming danger - or maybe because of it - line work is safe when all procedures are followed correctly.
"There's never been a fatality here," said NStar spokesman Michael Durand. "It's one of the most safety-conscious jobs in the world."
NStar was formed in 1999 by a merger of
There are 32 line workers in the NStar transmission and distribution department, but only a core group of 12 or so do the high-tower work regularly - that is, work on the lines that transmit massive amounts of electricity. No one is forced to; it's strictly voluntary, Durand said.
Officials at NStar would not discuss salary, but according to the Braintree-based Utility Workers Union of America, Local 369, line workers average $23 an hour with leader pay about $31 an hour. But a spectator standing on solid ground looking 100 or so feet up, where the crews are working, might be inclined to think it's not nearly enough.
One of their jobs is to replace porcelain insulators with new ones made of polymer, as they were doing on the section of line in Carver recently. Insulators don't conduct electricity; they provide a connection point for the live wire that keeps it a safe distance from the pole. With them, electricity continues on its intended path along the wire; without them, the juice could travel from the wire to - and down - the pole.
Once the linemen ground each section of line they are working on, they go up wooden towers some 80 feet high (adjacent metal towers carrying more power lines are 120 feet tall), doing their own high-wire act. In Carver, Sprague and Jarod Smith climbed the pole (dislodging a few agitated flying squirrels from their holes) and then shimmied out on the struts holding the insulators, a strand of 15 plates weighing a couple of hundred pounds each.
Once straddling the struts and properly cinched into bungee cords to prevent them from plummeting to earth if they slip, the men pulled up the insulator columns by rope and pulley. A ladder was also hung down from the strut, and another worker, Jayson Henley, 29, of Hull, climbed down it to loosen the old insulators before replacement.
It's a serious job, but there is plenty of good-natured ribbing among the crew members. They call line worker Jeff Southerland "the fat guy" even though he's anything but. Last year, Henley took the fastest pole climb at the Lineman's Rodeo in Kansas City: Southerland - several years older and a few pounds heavier - came in ninth.
At the Lineman's Rodeo, workers from around the world compete in events based on traditional lineman tasks and skills - events like the pole climb and the hurt-man rescue.
First held in 1984 with 12 participating teams from Kansas and Missouri, the rodeo has grown to more than 200 teams and 250 apprentices. The rodeo is a great way to show off speed that is of no use on the actual job, the NStar line workers say - faster is not better when it comes to climbing a pole to work with electricity. Still, rodeo climbing is different from work and a sheer blast, the men said.
Henley broke the world record last year when he scurried up a 40-foot wooden pole with a bucket in his teeth that held an egg, hung the bucket at the top, and then scampered down with the egg clenched in his teeth, unbroken. He did this in just over 15 seconds.
The NStar crew had a pretty good showing in all at the rodeo with three top finishers: Henley, Michael Pierce, and Robert Michaud. This year's rodeo is scheduled for September in Kansas City and the NStar team has been practicing hard for it.
"Yeah, the camaraderie is there; it's part of the job," said Paul McCabe, 49, of Hanover, a 19-year veteran.
So is the need to be out-of-doors. "I've always done outside work; I could never work in an office," he said.
Falling off a pole rarely happens, although there can be other injuries, such as splinters. One that Henley got in training was memorable.
"Yeah, splinters can happen. I once got one that went through my glove into my palm, up my hand and came out the tip of my index finger," Henley said with a shrug. "It was like a splint, I couldn't move my finger. I couldn't pull it out, so I had to go to the hospital."
In Carver, the crew worked steadily, but the job was far from done.
There are more than 100 poles needing insulator replacement, a $500,000 project that's been ongoing since last October.
"Doing this work is not typically an eight-hour day," said Steven Lewis of Bridgewater, a line worker supervisor. "This will take a while."
Safety procedures do a lot to minimize the work's inherent danger. Occasionally, however, line workers feel a little buzz of juice from nearby wires.
"You get a little tingle, no big deal," Sprague said. "We're not thrill seekers, but we like living on the edge a little bit."
