By R. Bruce Wright, CPCU
Road repair and construction activities present a common challenge to distribution systems in their efforts to maintain proper system design clearances. Issues frequently arise from the fact that while poles and lines may be properly set and strung initially, road maintenance activities can easily change the situation. A new coat of pavement added to a road can reduce overhead clearances, can incrementally (or in some cases dramatically) widen a roadbed and reduce roadside clearances. New roads, or perhaps more commonly, new private drives, can be sited in ways that cause potential conflicts with existing system components that would not have been accepted when the lines were originally designed and constructed.
We all know that roads are regularly repaved as they deteriorate. We all also recognize that during the course of this work, there any number of situations like those mentioned above may change your system’s clearances. Some of these changes will inevitably result in parts of your system failing to meet the clearance requirements of the NESC or other guidelines that guide the design and construction of lines at your system.
There is a common reaction we get when we bring this up, one that you may even be having now. We frequently hear, “Hey, that’s not our fault! Our engineers and construction crews designed and built the line to the code when it went up, and if somebody changes things, it’s not our responsibility.” Of course, you can argue that these changes are not your fault, and in some cosmic sense you might be right! Unfortunately, in the everyday world we live in, such arguments are unlikely to be effective in defending you from a liability claim. As readers of this newsletter will already know, legal doctrines such as Constructive Notice may well apply. In addition, the “Reasonable Person Test” would lead most objective observers to think that new pavement is so “open and obvious” that it should be seen and reacted to, even without any special notice. And, as experts working with electricity, you may well be held to an even stricter standard, and have to demonstrate the "highest degree of care" in protecting the public.
So, what should you do?
For starters, it is important to maintain open lines of communication with the local authorities, including villages, towns, counties and your state department of transportation, that may be involved in planned and executing road improvements. You should also make sure that they include you on the list of interested parties that should be contacted early in the planning stages of this type of work.
But, you can’t simply rely on others to notify you. You need to take active steps to spot, identify and respond to changes in your territory that have the potential to affect clearance issues. The easiest and most obvious resource you have is your own staff. Your people are out on the roads every day, and they should be asked to include information on any road construction or improvement activity when they report back to the office. Road construction and repair activity is a factor that should also be formally included on the checklists, trouble report forms, or other guidelines you use in the process of conducting line patrol. Changes in road conditions (as well as other environmental changes) are clearly an important element of “line patrol,” despite the fact that these are not, strictly speaking, part of your lines or ROW. Even so, these issues are critical to the maintenance of a safe and reliable system, and inspections should not focus so much on the details that the big picture is lost!
Finally, this is a good example of the type of “open and obvious” issue that you should include as an example when you conduct hazard identification training with your entire staff. You can easily train even the least technical employee you have to recognize and report to you if they see road work or paving taking place.
