County residents might see some unusual tree trimming along power lines near their houses this week.

Saturday, August 12, 2000

County residents might see some unusual tree trimming along power lines near their houses this week.

Aerial Solutions, a Tabor City, N.C.-based trimming company, has been contracted by American Electric Power to clear the right-of-way to several of the company’s lines in the county by using a helicopter with a trimming mower attached to its belly.

"We do routine trimming to keep tree limbs from affecting our power lines," Melissa McHenry, AEP spokeswoman said. "For the next week, we will be using a helicopter to trim overgrown vegetation away from our distribution power lines."

Trimming is a lot faster with a helicopter than the traditional man crews working from the ground, she added.

"We’ve found it to be more effective and more efficient," Ms. McHenry said.

AEP forestry coordinator O.C. Leith said trimming along the power lines increases the company’s ability to provide quality service.

"Using a helicopter to open lines up is one of the many tools we use to maintain our right-of-ways when lines are overgrown with vegetation," Leith said. "By trimming vegetation away from the lines, it makes the reliability on those lines a whole lot better than what they may have been in the past. A line that has a good clearing allows easier access whenever we have to make a line repair."

He said Aerial Solutions owns four helicopters and travels nationwide to do similar work for other companies.

"These guys specialize in cleaning power lines year-round all across the nation," he said. "They are very precise at what they do. The mowers they use have 11 blades that cut 23 feet at a time. They are much quicker than using a cutting crew from the ground."

Power lines are routinely checked for vegetation overgrowth. The number of times a line is trimmed depends on how quickly growth occurs, he added.

Ms. McHenry said the use of a helicopter to clear work paths is more typical on the bigger power lines that provide electricity to the smaller distribution lines running to residential houses.

"This type of trimming is typically more common along our transmission lines," she said. "We trim routinely, usually on our 765 lines. People usually don’t see that as much because those lines are in more remote areas. They are the lines on very large upside-down ‘V’ shaped towers and always require a significantly large right-of-way."

The 765 lines are similar to interstate highways with smaller (distribution) lines that feed off, much like a state route highway would, she added.

"We usually don’t use a helicopter to clear a distribution line," she said. "In this particular case, we will be using the helicopter four to five days longer to trim in the Haverhill area and on Disterdick Lane in the Ohio Furnace area. The last time we used a helicopter to trim was in 1994 and 1995, so, it has been a while since we have used this means to clear our lines."