Utility Poles: Appendix 10

Utility Company Programs

Several utility companies have initiated utility pole safety programs, e.g., Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) Lafayette Utilities Systems (LUS), and Peco Energy.

JEA

JEA has a service area of approximately 2,000 square miles in northeast Florida. The utility company contracted with the Texas Transportation Institute to develop a safety program that would have the following components:

  • Utility placement guidelines

  • A comprehensive crash data file

  • Computer programs to prioritize cost-effective safety treatments

  • A comprehensive set of safety improvement methods and guidelines for their use.

In the first year of operation, ten sites were identified and modified, and a goal was established to use crash data to identify and improve at least five more per year. A level of expenditure not to exceed $100,000 per year was established for the treatment of prioritized sites.

LUS

LUS is located in Lafayette, LA and implemented its program to achieve greater public safety and reduce LUS's costs of vehicle collisions with utility structures. Utility structures are placed into one of three categories following a review of crash data:

  • Category 1-Sites where poles are subject to repeated collisions

  • Category 2- Sites where poles may be subject to collisions

  • Category 3- All other poles

Each year, approximately 10 utility structures will be selected for treatment. When it becomes difficult to identify sites worthy of treatment, the primary goals of the program will have been met.

Peco Energy

PECO Energy, a division of Exelon Corporation, has a service area in southeastern Pennsylvania, consisting of Philadelphia and four surrounding counties, with approximately 14,000 roadside miles, containing approximately 500,000 poles. PECO Energy has developed and implemented a roadside object safety program with the following components:

  • Guidelines to keep new and replacement poles clear of traffic or near the outside edge of public right of way, and out of high-risk roadside areas.

  • Procedure to record and address accident-history poles.

  • Reflectors installed to delineate all poles.

  • Program to relocate poles when notified of highway authority road widening.

  • Program to assess and mitigate poles in utility-pole accident cluster areas identified by highway authorities.

  • Assessment and mitigation of poles subject to highway authority or similar complaints.

  • Reduction of the number of poles and roadside objects on its system by:

    • Joint use of many poles with phone, cable, and other utilities.

    • Underground service to new residential developments.

    • Use of long-span technology in certain areas.

Since the early 1990's, new poles have been installed subject to the roadside placement guidelines, cluster areas have been reviewed, and many poles have been moved in connection with highway authority road widening. These efforts have mitigated thousands of poles, and are continuing.

Sources

Federal Highway Administration, "Highway/Utility Guide", Publication No. FHWA-SA-93-029, Washington, DC, June 1993.

Utilities Safety Task Group, TRB Utilities Committee (A2A07), Utilities and Roadside Safety, State of the Report 9, TRB, 2004.