Cement Poles

[staggerlee]

Looking for any information on removing Cement poles. We recently recieved information on a problem with some of these. It appears that the re-bar was butt welded in some of these poles. This has created a problem in catostrophic failure in the poles at this point. Apparently the poles can break as the re-bar was not properly welded. In some cases there was no penetration in the welds and this created a weak point. We have been informed of a fatality in New Brunswick where the pole was being removed and the top fell and struck an employee. Still under investigation so not much info although this was supposed to have happened in 2007. Any info out there?

[Edge]

they capped and cased or direct buried? Transmission or 'bustion? if they're capped and cased then you need a jack hammer to break the cap thats usually 6 to 12 inches of over flow and a foot into the case... then depending on the case you need to blow the hole if it's sand or slowly snap out the gravel... if it's 'bustion and capped and cased you need to prolly got a foot or 2 and then set up your digger on the bastard winch down bring you line about a quarter turn around the stick and hook up the sling... it will cork screw the thing outa the ground... if ya can't pull it that way you need to ease off and snap some more outa the whole the sand filled ones usually go ok... if it's mission you gotta get a hell of alot more gravel or sand out cuz they are usually in a 21 foot case with 10 foot of poured crete at the bottom leaving you 11 foot of gravel or sand casefill... so if you can blow 4-5 foot of sand out your good 6-7 foot of gravel... you'll prolly need a big stick 150ton to 300 on the pole rigged and the set points they vary depending on the height of the stick... I think 70's are 45' and 90's are 65 but double check with the manufacturer... get you big stick to tighten up till the slings start to buck then you need a dozer with a steel sling...never use a steel sling to pick or pull a crete pole only to break one loose... hook the steel sling in to the winch and use the dozer to cork screw it...

if it's capped and cased it's serious and dangerous shit only guys that REALLY know how to rig should do this stuff!

if it's direct buried... yeah backhoe... with good pull points is the best way the butts are flared or tapered and just trying to pull them with a digger in distribution or a crane on mission will prolly tear up some equipment...

figure out what your working with and post again I might be able to pas on somemore info...

for what it's worth...

Edge