Electricity Today T&D Magazine

For many utilities, scheduling each day’s construction and restoration work means manually organizing and keeping tabs on ever-changing crew schedules and resources. Managers meticulously update whiteboards dotted with color-coded magnets representing crews and trucks. Augmenting the whiteboards are often schedules pulled from a PC-based project management tool and a database management product. Adding to this challenge is the fact that different departments concentrate on restoring outages, while other groups manage day-to-day construction.

The process is a daily fight to stay ahead of projects and restore outages for customers. While utility company managers and crews always complete this work, according to...

For much of the trade’s history, the most important safety lessons in line work were never written down. They were learned by proximity. New linemen watched how experienced hands approached a pole, handled a tool, or reacted when conditions changed. They learned when to slow down, when to stop talking, and when something simply did not feel right. These lessons were rarely formalized, yet they shaped judgment in ways no procedure ever could.

That informal transfer of knowledge is fading, and its absence is beginning to show.

The structure of the trade has changed rapidly. Accelerated retirements have removed decades...