Life of Power Line Poles?

[Ted Summey]

With all the winter weather and winter storm "Ream Us" bearing down on central NC, it has me thinking about power outages. One thought leads to another and I am thinking about the life expectancy of pine power poles installed in the late 1980's.

Assuming no damage from car/tractor strikes just normal weathering, what is the life expectancy of pine power poles? These appear to be Osmos treated and inspected poles.

 

[oosik]

I called our power company last year because I had a good use for replaced poles. They told me 30-40 years is normal.

 

[PILOON]

A Hydro Quebec lineman told me they replace at 25 years.

 

[RickB]

The line going past my house still has a few original Chestnut poles from the 1920's. When we built our house 25 years ago, the utility company set a new pole rather than hang a transformer on one of those originals. At 25, that pole is one of the newer on that rural line. Nobody here rushes around to replace poles based on age alone. Given that poles today are soft wood and undoubtedly treated with some kind of eco-friendly PT formula, today's poles probably won't make 30 years.

 

[davesl708]

I have a pole on my property line that is 55yrs old. Has one transformer and two service lines on it.

 

[rrrkkk]

Most utility's either do or have a service, that checks the poles on a periodic basis. They drill a small hole in every pole and will replace the needed poles.

 

[Industrial Toys]

A neighbours poles carrying 4800 accross his field had rotted off. We moved them slightly out of the way, dug a hole and put them back in the ground just a bit shorter.

I was so pleased that day, that we had stuck it to the man, and even more so that no one got electrocuted!

 

[oosik]

This supports my thoughts. Power/telephone pole life is dependent upon - type of tree pole is crafted from, how has the "in the ground" portion of the pole been treated, what type soil is the pole going into. I have a long run down my driveway for the power(one mile). Nine of the ten poles are on high & dry ground - one is in a area that gets wet & boggy. The wet one has been replace 2X in the 33+ years I've been here. The other nine look as good as the day they were installed.

 

[MossRoad]

A few years back one of the local utilities sent crews around that would brace a pole, dig it out all the way around, inspect it, replace it if needed or treat it with preservative and bury it again. They didn't replace many. And most of those poles have been around since I was a kid, so 50+ years.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

The power company here has made it clear to me, they don't fix ANYTHING that isn't broke!! AND that means no poles replaced until the wires go down or they have to for some other reason.

Many of the poles around here are from the 30's and 40's!!

SR