12 Kv Support Arm Failure

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Electric Conduit Construction (ECC) Crews are trained to be aware of their surroundings when mobilizing to a new job site. Situational awareness is one of the best ways for a crew to work as a team and keep each other out of harms way.

In January of 2025 an ECC crew mobilized onto a site to work on upgrades to a cellular site. For ECC crews it is standard practice to set up traffic control, verify locate marks, photograph the site and locate marks and do a survey of the poles once removed from the job site in either direction. In this case one of the crew members noticed that the arm supporting the 12 Kv. primary conductor on the next pole from the jobsite, had failed. The arm was connected but it had pivoted on the attach bolt and the primary conductor was only inches from the wires on the transformer.

The crew immediately called the electric utility and reported the problem. Repairs were made which prevented power outage or a complete failure and the 12 Kv primary falling from the pole.

This is the kind of attention that helps maintain safety awareness and keeps crews out of trouble. In this case the ECC crew also contributed to community safety by being proactive, reporting the problem and getting it fixed before a bigger problem occurred.

Thank you to our crews, foremen and superintendents for fostering this kind of vigilance and situational awareness. These are attitudes that save lives and help our community.