Timber poles lose structural capacity for a number of reasons. These include decay, fungi causing shell rot and heart rot in the groundline area, insect damage, mechanical damage and deterioration/splitting of the pole tops. All these factors need to be considered when assessing a pole for its ability to continue to safely support the load potential.
Logsys Power Services offers non-intrusive wood pole reinforcement systems for the repair of distribution and transmission poles, designed by Osmose Utilities Services Inc. The Osmose C-Truss® and C2-Truss® systems restore the required strength of a pole in the critical groundline area. Most poles can be restored for a cost that is approximately 10–15 per cent of the cost for a new pole replacement.
When poles are reinforced, the mechanism used to attach the steel truss to the pole becomes a critical component of the final structural repair system. The use of high-strength banding has the distinct advantage of transferring the load and subsequently creating far lower bearing stresses on the timber, compared to a system that uses bolting.
Logsys Power Services also offers an Osmose designed solution for overloaded poles. The Osmo-ET-Truss™ can upgrade pole strength by up to three pole classes, at approximately 30 per cent of the cost of pole replacement. The ET-Truss also uses the same high-strength banding technology as the C-Truss and C2-Truss.
Osmose pole restoration and strengthening systems have been successfully installed on poles for more than 50 years. In 2014, Logsys Power Services brought these technologies to Australia and New Zealand. Earlier this year, Western Power awarded Logsys Power Services a tender to reinforce over 20,000 distribution and transmission wood poles for the 2018/2019 financial year.
Extending the life of steel structures
Do your transmission towers look like this?
Like the degradation of timber poles from decay and fungi, steel towers, monopoles and streetlights will suffer groundline strength loss from corrosion. This corrosion is caused by contact with soil, moisture, oxygen and other environmental factors. While galvanising does provide protection to steel from corrosion, the severity of these environmental conditions will ultimately determine the life span of the steel structure.
The repaired structure:
Logsys Power Services is associated with the Australian Corrosion Association and has trained asset inspectors to assist utilities with identifying corrosion and corrosive environments, and propose corrective measures when needed. Corrective measures for steel towers are uniquely designed by experienced professional engineers and approved by the utility. Our patented iNjectapole® system is used for streetlight reinforcing and is a structurally certified pole repair system providing many years of life extension to the pole.
For more information, visit www.logsys.com.au or call 08 9301 4911.
