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Post by ComfortZone on Jun 21, 2024 9:14:49 GMT 12
As some will know, a pylon near Kumeu carrying the 220kV power line to Northland "fell" over late yesterday morning
fortunately there is still the secondary 110kV transmission line, altho at the time the pylon fell over it was isolated for maintenance.
Comment in BFD general debate this morning
The first thing the CEO of Transpower said to Mike Hosking this morning about the power outage was that unfortunately we “lost a tower”. Well fancy that.
We all know that was a euphemism for something more akin to the famous “Parrot sketch” of Monty Python fame. (Or is that Monty Pylon)
It was clear as the interview continued that the CEO was not going to reveal anything of what we knew. However, I think personally the first question should have been “what” happened with less focus on “why” it had happened.
I can understand that people will naturally start speculating the Why question, before you have fully finished exploring the What question.
As I used to do this kind of thing for a my day job, I do understand that part of what she was saying is important. It can take a bit of time to piece together some very technical intersections of process, equipment failure, personal error etc to get the base issue, or combination of issues that together result in a “failure mode”
However she could have easily given a high level description that might have assuaged some concerns that pylon towers all over the country weren’t going to suddenly start falling over. Unless of course they might.
There is speculation that some structural components of the pylon had been removed whilst the surface coating system was being recoated.
I think it is time the Transpower CEO Alison Andrew (salary ~$1.5M p.a) fell on her sword, too many supply failures on her watch indicating a systemic problem from the top down in the organisation. We did not lose power in Warkworth, but ironically I had the local electrical contractor around home on Wednesday to scope out switchboard mods to run a generator
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Post by em on Jun 21, 2024 9:32:00 GMT 12
Some pics to help join the dots . What’s the petrol motor with what looks like hydra hoses ? Makes you wonder how many other pylons this crew did with the same technique that didn’t fall over ? Or if it was a one off short cut , do two feet at once 10 mins before smoko sorta fing . Attachments:
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Post by fish on Jun 21, 2024 10:09:56 GMT 12
When does Tai Tokerua get a state highway again?
Do they have an opening date for SH1 yet?
I see the Energy Minister is going for a visit up north today, but they didn't mention how he was getting there. Jet-pack, levitation device, flying?
I can see why people up there are getting a bit pissy.
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Post by ComfortZone on Jun 21, 2024 10:10:18 GMT 12
Some pics to help join the dots . What’s the petrol motor with what looks like hydra hoses ? Makes you wonder how many other pylons this crew did with the same technique that didn’t fall over ? Or if it was a one off short cut , do two feet at once 10 mins before smoko sorta fing . I think a contractor's public liability insurer is going to be facing a rather large payout, unless their contract specifies Transpower's covers the insurance - which is possible!! |
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Post by eri on Jun 21, 2024 10:48:53 GMT 12
looks to be a completely unnecessary fubar
and it'll be something really stupid
ie the book says to remove 1, out of the 8, set of nuts on each leg pad, paint, wait 24hrs, torque down nuts, and move on to 2nd set, repeat 7 times until all of these very important structural elements have been inspected and re-protected
however the contractor has for years been disregarding the 'manual' and making the job faster/more profitable by doing 2 nut sets at a time, until recently they've just been relying on gravity to keep the pylon down while the speedily removed all 16? nuts at the same time from the bolts embedded in the concrete base blocks
but then the wind blew....or the line weight pulled the pylon legs off the bolt threads
or
a completely new contractor, with a very poor knowledge base, ie idiot, did the job without understanding or being told, what the point of bolting the pylon legs into the concrete is
the investigation should look into how they got the contract
let's hope they're not some widely regarded business, lauded for helping get drugged up slackers back into paid employment
if so
what's been learned in the 5 years since auckland's almost completed conference centre burned after the roofing apprentice left the tar boiler unattended over lunch....
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Post by GO30 on Jun 21, 2024 10:52:10 GMT 12
When does Tai Tokerua get a state highway again? 11.59pm next Wednesday. They are cleaning the place up and packing down Checkpoint Charlie at the moment.
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Post by ComfortZone on Jun 21, 2024 13:38:46 GMT 12
what's been learned in the 5 years since auckland's almost completed conference centre burned after the roofing apprentice left the tar boiler unattended over lunch.... I would think that apprentice got a very good bonus that year as he turned a sh*t job into a really good job for Fletchers  |
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Post by dutyfree on Jun 21, 2024 19:17:27 GMT 12
Based on the fall it was a "corner" tower, so the loadings would be quite high. Bolts out see you later
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Post by eri on Jun 24, 2024 13:18:35 GMT 12
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Post by sloopjohnb on Jun 24, 2024 14:59:35 GMT 12
but is it not the transpower's project engineer responsibility to ensure that the contractors follow the procedures?  ?? |
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Post by GO30 on Jun 24, 2024 15:43:57 GMT 12
but is it not the transpower's project engineer responsibility to ensure that the contractors follow the procedures? ?? Only when things go well, not when things go wrong  |
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Post by eri on Jun 24, 2024 16:39:05 GMT 12
so all 96 nuts off three of the 4 legs were removed whoever the supervisor was must have thought he had a handle on the complicated cross-loadings between; line tensions, gravity and winds certainly didn't find 'remove 75% of nuts at once' it in any manualthe winds there can get pretty squirrely, esp. as glorit is at the first rise in land the prevailing winds hit as they race across flat kaipara harbour towards the kaipara hills... www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/520400/transpower-reveals-why-pylon-fell-causing-major-northland-outage |
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Post by ComfortZone on Jun 24, 2024 19:19:58 GMT 12
but is it not the transpower's project engineer responsibility to ensure that the contractors follow the procedures? ?? on a lot of maintenance contract work there is often no client supervision |
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Post by ComfortZone on Jun 25, 2024 9:01:12 GMT 12
Posted in RCR Bites this morning
The contractor, Omexom, was cleaning and treating the nuts at the time. From looking at the Omexom website, it looks like they need to spend less energy on woke activism and focus more on competency
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Post by sloopjohnb on Jun 25, 2024 9:19:34 GMT 12
like my grandma used to say "stick with your knitting"
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??