SITKA, ALASKA Electric department director Chris Brewton says crews installed three new 70-foot poles along the main transmission line between Blue Lake and town, along with new conductors.
Linemen could not drive bucket trucks to the repair site. The crews climbed the poles to do the work.
Brewton says there was a possibility that the lines might have suffered additional damage in the storm, but the only way to find out is to make repairs and test the system.
“Oftentimes when you have a line contact like that you may have a problem several spans away. It may pull a connector loose, or a termination loose. We checked everything we could, but you really can’t tell until you energize it.”
The diesel generators on Jarvis street burned nearly 47-thousand gallons of fuel during the three-day repair work. Brewton does not have an estimate of the final cost, since different prices were paid for the fuel in the tanks. He says the Electric department had a $150-thousand dollar contingency fund to cover the cost of fuel.
Linemen will be back at the Heart Lake Trail repair site tomorrow to remove their equipment.
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