Re:Utility poles
by shirro on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @04:57PM
(#16379846)
Except for South Australia. I don't know if it was due to termites, lack of hard woods, fireproofing or an excess of steel and concrete but we embed concrete between two steel beams to create the iconic stobie pole which has doomed countless motorists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stobie_pole
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Stobie poles are used a lot in Italy and southern Europe. They all seem to be from the 1920s and have really bad "concrete cancer" and the underlying steel is rusting out. Quite picturesque in a "oh crap, there is 220v on top of this rusting pile..." kind of way.
"the prime of miss jean brodie" is set in pre-WWII scotland and an opening credit scene walks past two concrete lamp posts. My mother (who was an architectural historian) leaned over and said "anachronistic: that wasn't introduced until the 1950s" which goes to show fanaticism over street furniture and the poles is deep deep down...
Re:Utility poles
by throwaway7645 on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @06:39PM
(#16380668)
220V isn't very high in the power world. The US has 765 KV. I'm not sure what the highest voltage cable in the world is, but now I'm curious.
There is a transmission system in India rated for something over a million volts. The last time I looked it was only carrying about 800kV, though. Just why this was so was not explained. IIRC it was on the Wikipedia article on transmission grids.
Re:Utility poles
by ldiracdelta on Wednesday February 14, 2018 @11:34PM
(#16381929)
IIRC, my college power professor said that Russian transmission lines carried 1 million volts, whereas US transmission lines only carry half a million volts.
Re:Utility poles
by throwaway7645 on Friday February 16, 2018 @11:48AM
(#16393622)
We do have plenty of 500 KV (all over Louisiana and Arkansas for example), but a good bit of 765 as well. It's very costly to get right-of-way and the bigger the installation the more right-of-way you need.