Ground Patrol
Advantages
- Inspection of overall condition of structure (Primary Benefit)
- Potential to assess the presence and severity of structure component wear and remaining strength
- Inspection of exposed portions of foundations, guys, and anchors
- Evaluation of loose hardware
- Sounding and boring of wood poles near the ground
- Assessment of line encroachment or vegetation clearing concerns
- Evaluation of tracking and insulator damage using UV inspection (Powerline Patrol Services)
- Assessment of conductor clearances
- IR evaluation of conductors, splices and jumper hot-spots (Powerline Patrol Services)
- Basic evaluation of the integrity of connections in wooden components
Disadvantages
- Relatively time-consuming patrol (Primary Loss)
- Difficult to identify the presence and/or extent of several types of insulator degradation without UV inspection (Powerline Patrol Services)
- Difficult to identify the presence and/or extent of decay, corrosion, and/or wear at upper elevations of structures
- Inability to identify above ground internal problems in wood poles
- Inability to reliably identify bonding problems without UV inspection (Powerline Patrol Services)
- Poor structure access by ROW discourages close or multiple- angle viewing
