Minimum approach distances

[topgroove]

apparantly different utilities have different distances. whats yours? Here at National Grid were a little more stringent than most utilities. I'm talking leather gloves with no cover-up

Minimum Approach Distances

System Voltage

50 - 1,000 V Reaching distance
1001 - 15,000 V reaching distance + 2ft. 2 In.
23 KV reaching distance + 3 FT.
34.5 KV reaching distance + 3 Ft.
69 KV reaching distance + 4 Ft.
115 KV reaching distance + 5 Ft.
230 KV reaching distance + 7 Ft.
345 KV reaching distance + 9 Ft.

These distances are greater than Osha recomends but its the rules we have to work with here.

[duckhunter]

We require gloves and sleeves ground to sky in a bucket or in hooks. We require gloves to open an UG enclosure, sleeves if you are doing anything more than inspecting.

We don't stick so we don't do anything with leather only.

[topgroove]

We do alot of hotstick work here.

[lewy]

Most of our province is ground to ground with the exception of Hydro One & I think they have a 4 foot rule, before they need rubber gloves. We have what we call a restricted zone that applies when we are doing stick work(we do not have to wear rubber gloves when doing stick work), when we are inside the restricted zone up to 50 kv we must wear rubber gloves & this applies to the entire province.
This is our Restricted Limits of Approach for Authorized Workers
750 to 15 000 is 3' to 1' Minimum clearance 1,
15 000 to 35 000 is 3' to 1' Minimum clearance 1.5'
35 000 to 50 000 is 4' to 2' Minimum clearance 2'
50 000 to 150 000 is 5' to 3' Minimum clearance 3'
150 000 to 250 000 is 7' to 4' Minimum clearance 4'
250 000 to 550 000 is 12' to 9' Minimum clearance 9'

This is our Safe limits of approach for Authorized workers
750 to 35 000 3'
35 000 to 50 000 4'
50 000 to 150 000 5'
150 000 to 250 000 7'
250 000 to 550 000 12'

[topgroove]

Intresting... Not many guys hotstick anymore. What do you guys do with backlot 13.2. Or 34.5 , kill and ground it.

[duckhunter]

If we can't get a bucket to it, we kill it.

[topgroove]

I here ya duck. Unfortunatly we've got a ton of backlot 13.2 here with customers who bitch if its a ten minute outage. We've got alot of radial 34.5 that has to stay hot too. If its a storm of coarce will kill it, but for simple maintence work we usually stick it.

[BillyMac]

Are we talking Personal clearance from un-insulated part of your body to energised conductors/apparatus?

[topgroove]

yes, wearing leather gloves... ( Not wearing gloves or sleaves)

[jerry]

I do not mean to offend anyone,but if you can not get a Bucket to it you kill it? REALLY, I am an old retired JL who started out working on the hooks with Hot Sticks and we very seldom killed the line to do our work. I seen the erosion of the skills of JL before I retired and it saddened me then.Being able to perform the work Hot and doing it safe is what makes a Journeyman Lineman a skilled craftsman. Just MHO.

[wtdoor67]

What is so damn hard about teaching folks the basics of hot sticking? It's not that tough.

They just don't want to spend the time to teach people. They'd rather spend 2 or 3 hrs jawing about some new safety rule some pea brain has dreamed up rather than teach guys how to change out an arm or DE bells with sticks.

Glad I'm not in it anymore.

The so called "storm planning" always cracked me up. I used to tell them, this co. been doing this crap for a hundred years and they still don't know how to manage a storm.

As long as they pick management people like they always have, it won't change.

[topgroove]

What is so damn hard about teaching folks the basics of hot sticking? It's not that tough.

They just don't want to spend the time to teach people. They'd rather spend 2 or 3 hrs jawing about some new safety rule some pea brain has dreamed up rather than teach guys how to change out an arm or DE bells with sticks.

Glad I'm not in it anymore.

The so called "storm planning" always cracked me up. I used to tell them, this co. been doing this crap for a hundred years and they still don't know how to manage a storm.

As long as they pick management people like they always have, it won't change.I've worked with guys who were so damn good at it they could pick someones nose with sticks. It was almost a talent like art work. I'm barely OK at it but couldn't hold a candle some of the guys that taught me. I'ld watch these guys tie in primary and when they were done the wraps were absoulty perfect and way tighter than you could ever do by hand. We use to do alot of 34.5 KV pole changeouts all hotsticked. Now we contract out most of that and they kill it and ground it. Times are a changing I guess. Kinda miss it:(

[Highplains Drifter]

I've worked with guys who were so damn good at it they could pick someones nose with sticks. It was almost a talent like art work. I'm barely OK at it but couldn't hold a candle some of the guys that taught me. I'ld watch these guys tie in primary and when they were done the wraps were absoulty perfect and way tighter than you could ever do by hand. We use to do alot of 34.5 KV pole changeouts all hotsticked. Now we contract out most of that and they kill it and ground it. Times are a changing I guess. Kinda miss it:(

Of course…….now the in thing to do is spend hours getting a truck unstuck!!:D:rolleyes:

[rob8210]

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to hotstick 44kv quite a bit. I had done some before that but just the odd job here and there. I found it to be really nice work, got pretty good at it too. The job I am on now is mostly all rubber glove , I'd love to teach the younger fellas some hot sticking but it is very hard to get the company to get me the sticks I need.

[Pootnaigle]

For the most part Hot sticking is a dying art. At one time linemen everywhere were proficient at it but in todays world many have never even seen it done and would not have a clue how to perform even the most simple of tasks with sticks.

[hotwiretamer]

For the most part Hot sticking is a dying art. At one time linemen everywhere were proficient at it but in todays world many have never even seen it done and would not have a clue how to perform even the most simple of tasks with sticks.

There are still quite a few utilities that stick out here in the West/Southwest. Difference being is it is done out of buckets mostly these days, I guess.
It's a little nerve racking when you are sticking off of a pole with someone that has never really done much of it outside of apprentice class.
Personally I am glad that we are a gloving company, but there are times when you wished you had more experienced stickers when you can't get a truck to something (we can't glove off of the pole), because to me that's the most critical time when a mistake can cost you a life, not just an outage.

[duckhunter]

You're right hotwire about lost skills. But when gloving came along, a lot of folks quit sticking and eventually got rid of stick trailers all the sticks and gins. A lot of guys at utilities only climb for annual pole-top rescue. You put a stick in their hands where they have to let go of the pole, they'd be introuble.

It's kind of like rigging and knot tying. With ratchet straps and bunge cords, I'm amazed how mang guys can't tie a decent knot. The belief is now, "if you can't tie a good knot, tie a lot of them".

[hotwiretamer]

You're right hotwire about lost skills. But when gloving came along, a lot of folks quit sticking and eventually got rid of stick trailers all the sticks and gins. A lot of guys at utilities only climb for annual pole-top rescue. You put a stick in their hands where they have to let go of the pole, they'd be introuble.

It's kind of like rigging and knot tying. With ratchet straps and bunge cords, I'm amazed how mang guys can't tie a decent knot. The belief is now, "if you can't tie a good knot, tie a lot of them".

DH, I'm glad that the utility I went to work for was "behind the times". I learned a lot of valueable things in rigging, sticking, and working from the pole simply because our company was "behind the times". I had an 8th step apprentice tell me awhile back when we were simply hand digging a pole hole, that it was only the second time in his career that he had used the spade and spoon! (He was a grunt for a couple of years before he became an apprentice).
I about sh@#t.

[duckhunter]

I think guys were a lot fitter in the days when everyone sticked and climbed. They had to be.