AGUADILLA PUEBLO, PUERTO RICO-- Linemen contracted by the Army Corps of Engineers are sling-loaded from helicopters Feb. 16 to inspect the tops of high voltage transmission towers and the anchor lines that hold them in place. A helicopter is necessary to deliver all personnel and equipment to these mountainous sites to conduct the required work. In order to inspect the base of the towers, the linemen clear trees and dense brush with chainsaws. “The helicopters pulls the power lines above and over thick vegetation, from one pole to the next, that would otherwise hinder linem
AGUADILLA PUEBLO, PUERTO RICO-- Linemen contracted by the Army Corps of Engineers are sling-loaded from helicopters Feb. 16 to inspect the tops of high voltage transmission towers and the anchor lines that hold them in place. A helicopter is necessary to deliver all personnel and equipment to these mountainous sites to conduct the required work. In order to inspect the base of the towers, the linemen clear trees and dense brush with chainsaws. “The helicopters pulls the power lines above and over thick vegetation, from one pole to the next, that would otherwise hinder linemen if they had to pull the power lines from the ground,” said Army Alarcon, the deputy area engineer of the USACE Aguadilla Area Office. Puerto Rico has 2,400 miles of transmission lines across the island and 30,000 miles of distribution lines with 300 sub-stations. It is estimated that 80 percent of the grid was affected by the storms. USACE, PREPA, and the island’s Power Restoration Coordinator will continually evaluate the remaining work in order to achieve our goals of restoring electricity to 90-95% of customers on the island by March 31. Achieving 95% restoration in areas with challenging terrain like Arecibo and Caguas will take until mid-April and late-May respectively. (Photo released by Maj. Michael N. Meyer, USACE.)
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Keywords: aguadilla, power, puerto, restoration, rico, usace
