Amazing dumb person

[pstamler]

Around here (Missouri) the local electric utility now spends a lot of time on tree-trimming, keeping several squads of workers busy much of the year. This became policy after some 40% of the city was blacked out by trees taking out lines when we had some mini-tornadoes one spring. Now Union Electric has figured out that it's cheaper to trim trees than fix wires. Better PR, too.

Peace,
Paul

 

[PRR]

> cheaper to trim trees than fix wires

I don't think this is true. Most years, most trees make no trouble. And trimming a couple hundred feet of line can (depending on tree density) take a lot longer than the typical repair, even considering overtime wages.

Asplunth averaged about 150 feet of line per hour on my street. True, this is "wilderness"... not even a mature forest, but the dense grow-back 30-50 years after clear-cutting. Canopy is higher than the lines, but trunks are still so dense I could hardly squeeze an excavator through some spots. Urban Missouri will have fewer larger wider trees but not to-infinity back from the line as we have here in the woods.

 

[Spiritworks]

I heard a New Jersey Utility spokesperson on the radio the other day talking about some cleanup & restoration facts. He stated that there was in excess of thirty thousand trees that came down on lines and roads that had to be cleared before lines could be repaired.