One Car, One Massive Detour

by Glenn C. Koenig, Webmaster at Town Wide Mall

Note:  This has been is a developing story.  I added to it during the day as more information became available.
​If you have read some of this earlier in the day, make sure to refresh your browser's cache, so that you have the latest version, and search for the word UPDATE..

Maynard, MA - Morning rush hour drivers North of Maynard Center were met with an unpleasant traffic jam while on the way to work this morning. The cause was a traffic accident at 3 AM where a car struck a utility pole hard enough to break it at its base, and damaging high voltage lines that ran up the side of the pole.

UPDATE:  The Maynard Police Department posted this photo of the accident on their Facebook page.  This view was taken looking down Haynes Street, toward the Cumberland Farms store on the lower half of Acton Street, Route 27.  Debris was spread in the area, including this wheel cover, lying on the ground on the other side of the Assabet River Rail Trail in Haynes Park.

As you can see, the pole is seriously damaged and leaning out over the roadway.  The light colored sheaf along the edge of the pole is a protective safety shield within which high voltage wires pass up from an underground conduit.  The woman driving was not injured and refused treatment at the scene..

It seems that the driver was headed west, along Concord Street and turned left onto Haynes Street at the intersection in an attempt to head down to the downtown area via Acton Street.  Perhaps because of excessive speed, she could not negotiate the turn, and struck the pole head on.  I do not have more details on the condition of the driver or more specific cause of the accident, but the Maynard Police Department may report more information later on.)

Haynes Street had to be closed and traffic throughout the entire area had to be rerouted, causing backups on neighboring streets. Both Concord Street and Brown/Haynes/Acton streets (Route 27) are major routes for commuters headed to Route 2 to the east, or out through Stow to Route 495 to the west.  The Map below shows an estimate of the extent of the detours.

On the map above, the dark brown line shows where my computer's map app indicates a road that's closed.  I added the black arrow and legend "Damaged Pole" to indicate the location of the accident.  The red lines to indicate other road closures that I observed as I traveled to the scene at 8 AM.  The blue lines show routes traffic had to take to avoid the blocked roads.  The red and blue lines are from my observations and are only an approximation; some roads may have been open or closed throughout the day, so check your traffic app, and always follow the directions of police on scene.

This photo shows traffic on Concord Street, just around 8 AM, near the Fowler Funeral Home.  The vehicles backed up are headed west towards Summer Street.  

Vehicles heading east on Concord Street (facing us, in the photo, in the distance) had to turn left to head north up the northern half Acton Street instead of Brown Street.  The north half of Acton Street eventually joins Brown Street across from Christmas Motors.

UPDATE:  2:00 PM - Concord street was closed throughout the morning, but is now open in both directions and travel along Brown Street is also open, but only down to Concord Street. Haynes Street remains closed at the scene, while crews continue to work.

The Damage & Repairs

The pole was splintered at ground level by the impact of the car and has to be replaced.  Crews have to hoist the pole up, cut off the damaged portion, then dig the base of the pole out of the ground to make room to place a new pole there. They then have to transfer the high voltage lines from the old pole over to the new one.
By the time I got there, around 8 AM, to take these photos, the car that had struck the pole was long gone.  However crews from Eversource will be on the scene for many more hours. Traffic will not be able to pass through the area until repairs are completed.

The boom on the truck in the foreground in this photo is clasped around the pole to prevent it from falling.
This is necessary to prevent the multiple high voltage lines at the very top of the pole and on the crossbar from coming down.
If these lines strike the ground they can start a fire and cut off power to a wide area.

Here is a closer view of what's involved.  At the very top of this image, there is a cluster of wires, partly obscured by tree branches.  On the crossbar just below that, another three lines enter from the left edge of the photo.  Both these groups are known as 3 phase high voltage lines. They typically carry anywhere from 2400 to over 8,000 volts with enough energy to supply many homes and businesses.
Distribution step-down transformers, mounted on other poles nearby, out in the neighborhoods, reduce this voltage to the 240 and 120 volts that provide power for the appliances and outlets in your home.

The heavy black lines further down the pole, near the bottom of the photo are cables with bundles of coaxial and fiber optic lines which carry signals for phone, TV, and internet services.

UPDATE:  11:00 AM - I just talked with a press representative at Eversource on the phone.  She informed me:
• The car hit the pole at 3:07 AM.
• Power was knocked out for 200 customers.  Subsequently, power was restored to all but 112 customers.
• They had to de-energize the area again, but finally power was restored to everyone just after 9 AM.
​• Before traffic can be allowed to pass through this area, a new pole has to be installed, likely by 2 PM.
After 2 PM, each of the high voltage lines need to be transferred over.  This is extremely dangerous work, and many safety precautions must be taken to protect the workers on the job.  It will likely take all day and into the night for this work to be completed.  Traffic may be opened for one lane in either direction, but it is not known when or for how long it will take for all lanes to be open again.

Subsequently, Verizon and Comcast will have to move their lines over from the old pole to the new one as well.  This may happen right away or days later.  In some cases, portions of the old pole are "strapped" to the new one, in order to hold those lines until those companies can come out to do the work.  This will likely cause further traffic congestion, depending on when the work is scheduled.

UPDATE:  12:30 PM - I talked with a worker on the scene.  The unofficial word was that Haynes Street and Concord Street at that intersection could be blocked for hours.
UPDATE:  2:30 PM - Concord and Brown Streets are now open.  Haynes Street remains closed.  Drivers heading either direction on route 27 still must detour, whether heading north or south.

By now, the existing pole has been sawed off a few feet above ground level and held aloft by a truck boom.  A new pole has been delivered, but it cannot be erected before other work is done.  ​

A portion of the underground conduit for the high voltage lines that ran up the side of the pole, known as a standpipe, must be replaced.  New wires will have to be pulled underground through the conduit as well.  Eversource has separate crews and equipment for both underground and overhead line work.  The the underground work must be completed and pole erected before work on the overhead lines can commence.

UPDATE:  2:30 PM - The pole is now up.  Crews on site are still waiting the underground team to arrive to place the standpipe in the ground, and extend the wires up the side of the pole.
In the foreground the portion of the old pole that was sawed off and removed is lying on the pavement.

In the photos below the one at the left shows where the standpipe will go (where the three wires are protruding from the hole).  Once that's in, work at the top of the pole can begin.
The photo at the right shows some of the equipment that was delivered, waiting to be mounted above.  The item on the left is a new crossbar with three insulators already installed.  The one at the right is a switch, designed to connect or disconnect all three wires of a 3 phase line at once.  This is very important, as equipment down the line can be damaged if only one or two of the three wires in a 3 phase line are connected.  Switches of this type are used to reroute power when lines are damaged in a given section or neighborhood, such as by a storm or an accident, as occurred here.

At this time, it is not clear whether Haynes street will remain blocked in both directions, or one lane will be opened.

UPDATE:  10:45 PM - Work has continued all afternoon and into the night.  At this time, the crew estimates that the work will be done during the night and completed well before morning rush hour on Thursday when traffic starts to build up.  A member of the crew told me that they were making every effort to maintain power to homes in the area throughout the work.  If they need to cut power, I was told, it would likely be for only a brief moment or two.

During the afternoon, a spool of replacement wire to run underground and up the side of the pole was brought in.
Once the new pole was up, work began to move each group of lines over from the old pole to the new one.  The top group of lines was first.
​In the photos below, workers are moving that group of wires from the old pole to the new one, where a mounting bracket has been installed.  The old pole is the one at the left, shorter and lighter in color, in the two close-up photos.

After that was done, a section at the top of the old pole was sawed off and removed to make it easier to lift the next group of three wires up and over it, over to insulators on the new pole.  But first, the new crossbar had to be mounted on the new pole, as shown below.

By 10 PM, the other 3 phase lines had been moved to the crossbar on the new pole.  And the switch had been mounted below that.  At this time, new wire was being pulled through the underground conduit, from its connection point in an underground chamber nearby.

In this photo, the new crossbar and switch are visible.  The orange material covering portions of the wires is temporary rubber insulation to protect the workers and equipment from contacting them.

This photo shows the access opening to the underground chamber (barely visible, just behind the orange cones).  A rope or cord is used to pull the heavy wires through the conduit, which runs under the street from the other side of where the pole is located.  (I could not get any closer to take this photo for safety reasons.)

Commentary

The world is full of surprises and this is a good example.  At least power was restored quickly and crews were on site to repair the damage in short order.  Fortunately, the pole did not fall all the way down to the ground!

In this story, I've gone into a lot of detail to describe the work that's being done to get everything back in working order.  I've done that because I don't think of what I'm doing as just news, but also as a learning opportunity. I hope that people of all ages, who might be interested, are inspired to understand more of the world around us and the infrastructure on which we all depend.  ​(That's one reason I keep this web site free from ads and subscription fees.)

After all, we use electricity every day.  Electric service is so commonplace, it's easy to take it for granted.  Just reach for a switch and turn on a light.  When the bill comes at the end of the month, we might be upset at what it costs, but there are many reasons why electricity costs what it does, especially the distribution part of the bill, which is what this story is about.
I was told that, on average, there are about four collisions where a vehicle hits a pole, per day in the service area in which this crew works.

Each time this happens, crews have to work overtime, often into the night, to make repairs, to  restore service, and to re-open streets that had to be cordoned off to protect the public and make room for them to do the work.

Now clearly, repairs like this are not the only factor in the distribution portion of your electric bill.  My only point here is that it's human nature to lose track of what has to be done, to make switching on a light or an appliance something we can do without a thought. 

If anyone is interested in learning what 3 phase power means and why our power grid works that way, I recently read a very good book on the history of the discovery and development of electric power.  It's called "The Lightning Tamers" by Kathy Joseph (©2022, Smart Science Press).
This is not just a technical book, but includes descriptions and fascinating stories of many of the people and social factors that had role to play in creating the electric powered world we have today.
I found it quite enjoyable to read.  "Truth, stranger than fiction," I always say.

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