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Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see poles with seven or eight attachments in high-density areas. As the number of attachments per pole has increased, we shouldn’t be surprised if the number of double wood poles does too.
It’s a lot easier to coordinate and resolve two attachment transfers than it is half a dozen. As poles get replaced, the more attachments that need to be moved the longer the transfer process takes.
Double wood is a liability— damaged, rotten, or overloaded poles in close proximity to the other assets endanger the grid and communities.
However, double wood itself is a symptom of some much deeper issues: unclear records and a lack of communication.
As we work together to build and maintain a robust and reliable grid, we have to start by getting the double wood issue under control, truing up records and initiating clear communication as we go.
Tackling the Backlogs
Resolving double wood can’t happen overnight. There are outdated tickets, backlogged jobs, and a general sense of ambiguity about who moves next. Often there’s a mountain of poles without any info on their current conditions.
When a utility thinks all the attachments have been transferred, they send out a construction crew to remove the stub pole. After all, it’s a safety hazard and they’re liable.
But sometimes the construction crew gets to the site and attachments haven’t been transferred or the stub has already been removed. That’s an expensive way for the utility to find out that records are outdated or the transfer process has stalled out.
Instead of sending crews out to check on each pole, engineering teams can leverage survey data from permitting and pole inspection workflows to investigate a pole’s true condition.
Teams can compare their list of poles within the double wood process to previously collected data. Those records can help reveal if attachments still need to be moved to the new pole, if a stub pole is empty and needs to be removed, or if double wood has been resolved and tickets can be closed.
However, even with the best records, some data will be too outdated to rely on. Field crews will still need to gather some info from the field, but leveraging up-to-date information helps minimize the cost and calendar days.
From there, it’s a matter of updating systems and tickets to reflect the real status, notifying attachers to move their attachments, sending out construction crews to remove stubs, and staying on top of the process.
But How Do We Keep Double Wood From Piling Up Again?
Maintaining a reliable grid demands we resolve the abundance of double wood, yes. But it also relies on accurate record-keeping and clear, transparent workflows to avoid build-up and backlogs in the first place.
There’s no silver bullet, but there are better practices that can keep things manageable and work moving.
1) Communicate clearly and often.
Double wood occurs when the transfer process drags on. Consistent, ongoing communication with attachers and construction crews is a step towards reducing calendar days.
2) Integrate to stay up-to-date.
Records that reflect the current condition are far more valuable than data from years ago (although that still provides critical insight!). Leveraging data from new attachments, pole replacements, equipment upgrades, and other improvements helps give a full picture of asset conditions. Storing all that info in one location across teams makes it easy to reuse data and avoid forked records.
3) Leverage the power of one.
Transfers usually require every attacher to send out a construction crew to move their attachment. Once moved, the next attacher is notified it’s their turn. They send out a crew. Then the next attacher… you get the point. But if one construction crew had approval from all attachers to make the moves at once, it would accelerate the entire process.
4) Protect the record.
Accurate records both internally and across notification systems give you one version of truth that you can rely on. You, your subcontractors, attachers, and utilities can trust what they’re looking at and act based on that verified info. This might require truing up tickets and notification systems, but cleaning up the process relieves so many headaches in the future.
A good rule of thumb is to determine what’s urgent and what’s important. We have to take care of the urgent, but we can’t ignore the important. Before we can fix the broken process, we have to address the urgent issues at hand.
Our internal engineering team wrestles with similar problems and uses Katapult Pro Workflow Management to improve communication pipelines and record-keeping.
Tackle the backlog and improve your process today with Katapult Pro Workflow Management. Contact us today to get started!