Elkridge Utility Pole Revisited

After a in Elkridge last Monday, BGE sent crews to tend to it, said Rachael Lighty, spokeswoman for BGE.

BGE inspects poles every time there is an incident like the fire, said Lighty.

"We do hundreds of jobs a day," said Lighty, "and anytime it's reactive, such as a car accident or a tree [that] comes down on a piece of equipment—those poles will be replaced or inspected as we do work on them."

Readers on Elkridge Patch about the safety of the pole after the fire last week, which was on Montgomery Road near the intersection with Route 1.

“The pole looks like a piece of charred firewood,” commented Corey Andrews.

Based on feedback from Elkridge, BGE said it sent another crew to be sure everything was OK.

“We had our crew go out and check again since there had been customer concerns, and it was found to be sound,” said Lighty. “The integrity of the pole hadn’t been damaged. It’s a little darker now from the smoke but the interior of the pole and the shell itself is still sound—it was the cable and not the pole itself that was affected.”

BGE has specific standards to determine whether a pole is structurally sound, said Lighty.

"They sound test [the pole]; they bore it; they look for voids; they treat the pole; they look at the top of the pole," she explained. "We test the strength of the pole. The center of the pole is really the strength of the pole.”

BGE also inspects a chunk of its service area—which includes 388,000 poles—each year.

This year the company is inspecting poles in parts of Baltimore City and Baltimore County, said Lighty. Howard County poles were inspected between 2007 and 2009, she said. 

So far this year, BGE has replaced 470 poles, according to Lighty.

A replacement pole costs several thousand dollars, said Lighty, but “it depends” based on the condition.

“There are four kinds of poles: good poles; some poles that we will reinforce with steel; if the pole has problems, we’ll schedule it to be renewed within two years; and if it needs to be replaced, 30 days,” said Lighty.

The average life span of a BGE utility pole is 32 to 40 years, said Lighty.

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