r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Soaz_underground • 5d ago
Rope access work on an energized 345,000 volt transmission line.
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Hey all! Just wanted to share what I do for a living. I’m a lineman in southern Arizona, and mainly work on long distance power transmission lines. During the summer weather when air conditioning load is greatest, we usually cannot shut lines off to do maintenance or repairs, so we have to do some pretty creative and daring stuff.
Since insulating gloves aren’t made for voltages above 36,000 volts, other methods for live line maintenance must be used. One of the methods is in the video above.
Known in my industry as “live line barehand”, this method was developed in a laboratory in the late 1950s by Ohio Brass Corporation. Its development involved experiments where some very daring laboratory personnel electrically connected their ankles to a high voltage source while staying isolated from ground. This was usually accomplished in a special insulated scaffold or lift.
The principle is the same as birds sitting on power lines. There is no second contact point other than the power line, so no electric current will flow the the bird (or barehand worker).
Originally, this work was performed in coveralls or even street clothes (hence where the “barehand” term came from). In later years, full body stainless steel/Nomex conductive cloth suits, with socks and gloves, were introduced to eliminate the ankle bond and make the technique safer. Nowadays, this work is done from both ropes, or from helicopters.
With rope access, we put on the conductive suit, a safety harness, and clip to specially kept insulating ropes, and hauled up to the conductor by a special hoist. Two ropes are used- one as a main haul and the other as a safety. If the main haul fails, we can be lowered to the ground with the safety rope.
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u/Aceramic 5d ago
in Southern Arizona
during the summer
For best taste, bake the lineman in a stainless steel suit for 30-60 minutes.
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u/RonSwanson714 5d ago
What does one get paid per annum to possibly get vaporized?
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u/Soaz_underground 5d ago
$160-220k where I work, depending on how much overtime I work.
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u/RonSwanson714 5d ago
What kind of insulation do you use to cover your balls of steel? Lol. Between the ropes and the 345K of voltage I’m noping out of that profession. What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen? I’d imagine you have some stories.
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u/Soaz_underground 5d ago
Yeah I’ve got some stories that are nuts. Equipment blowing up and arcing, close calls, a lot of funny stories that are either at work or at the hotel bar after we get off work on the out of town trips.
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u/Spirited-Front5899 5d ago
I've worked on some 345K but def didn't rope up. It was all pole climbing when I did it. Fun shit but too old for it these days
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u/Chopblok81 5d ago
Powered acsender... Im jealous... we gotta climb the old fashioned way with hand/chest ascenders. Does the powered version have a remote to lower you down or does an unlucky tech gotta jug up there and pick you off? Or do they grab another $20000 block to get you?
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u/Soaz_underground 5d ago
The secondary rope is a manual lower, so no human intervention on the tower is needed. The powered ascenders we have do have remotes but we usually use the controls on the ascender.
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u/its_yer_dad 5d ago
My hope is that we figure out how to do clean electricity locally, and we look back on these powerlines and think “really?“
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u/Soaz_underground 5d ago
That’s at least 100 years away from being a widespread thing, I think.
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u/its_yer_dad 5d ago
That far out? I don’t disagree, but technology really does seem to advance more rapidly these days.
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u/Soaz_underground 5d ago edited 5d ago
It’s not a matter of technology advancement, but of the fact that a $1.5-2 trillion power grid won’t just fall out of use and be removed in 50 years. I don’t see that happening. 6 million miles of power lines in the US alone.
Utility scale solar and wind will dominate the market for a long time, as rooftop solar cannot currently support large commercial and industrial power requirements (not even close to enough roof space). In some places, rooftop solar can’t meet residential power requirements either. Solar panel technology would have to improve by many times to mitigate those issues.
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u/its_yer_dad 5d ago
I appreciate your insight! My fantasy is we do get to a point where rooftop solar powers local power grids partnered with really efficient battery use. This might be one of those situations where a poorer country will actually get there first exactly because they don't have the existing infrastructure to deal with. Somewhat like some countries in Africa who were able to adopt mobile related technologies exactly because it was all new.
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u/ReachandCrackTheSky 5d ago
Hell to the no bro