Crews Cross Lake Lavon, Overcome Rain and Mud to Complete Major Transmission Line Rebuild

Struggling against torrential spring rains, deep mud, a tight deadline and obstacles such as the waters of Lake Lavon, Garland Power & Light crews completed rebuilding eight miles of key electric transmission line on June 4 - beating a June 15 deadline and helping to ensure reliable electrical transmission for Garland and other parts of North Texas.

The rebuilt eight-mile segment will permit delivery of extra electric generation capacity recently added to the Ray Olinger Power Plant near Lake Lavon. It's the latest major step in an overall transmission system renovation undertaken by GP&L over the past two years, and the largest transmission-related construction project the utility has undertaken.

A combustion turbine at the Olinger plant will generate extra electrical capacity for peak load (usage) periods - such as summer - and increase GP&L's ability to sell electricity to other electric companies. Rebuilding the line would have been a major project even under the best conditions.

The project involved replacing eight miles of double-pole and double-circuit transmission grid with nearly 90 H-shaped steel poles, many of them 100 feet tall and embedded in concrete. And Mother Nature made the task especially difficult. Given a clearance period - a period when the 138,000-volt transmission lines were made safe for handling - lasting from April 1 to mid-June, crews began preliminary work in March Transmission line rebuild/add one Unfortunately, "It rained for the first month," said Harold McNair, a GP&L lead lineman with 24 years of experience, who supervised the project. With time limits preventing a shutdown until conditions improved, "we had to use bulldozers to pull the trucks everywhere they went for three or four weeks because of the mud," remembers McNair.

Crew members had to wear rubber boots just to gain traction in the sometimes knee-deep mire. The mud meant altering construction techniques as well. The rough-terrain crane capable of traversing the mud had a lifting capacity of 12,000. The 35,000-pound weight of the H-shaped steel poles meant assembling the poles in sections, which added additional construction time.

And building over water meant crews had to climb poles from a ladder mounted on a boat instead of a more stable-appearing truck. Instead, they used an 18- foot, wide-bottomed boat that provided adequate stability in calm lake waters. Crews used the same type of hook ladder they would have used on land, with steel hooks and safety chain to keep it steady.

"Some of the guys were really eager to go up there," said McNair, though others were more cautious, he adds.

A total of six crewman climbed lake poles to string new transmission line. For crews used to working in the civilized confines of the city, working 10- to 12-hour days, six to seven-day weeks in the mud and constant rain was a challenge to both endurance and morale, added McNair. Keeping the mood light with joking helped, as did the challenge of keeping an important project on schedule. "I didn't treat this project as a job - it was goal," he concludes.