Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Damage to overhead fiber

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Posts
    70
    Rep Power
    0

    Default Damage to overhead fiber

    At a Flow presentation last week, they mentioned that Jamaica has the highest amount (by far) of damage to overhead fiber, for all the countries they operate in. Seems that we keep burning bush on the road side, or chopping trees, or stealing, or JPS wires touching theirs.
    I wonder if all the providers that are using the poles having the same problems?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    647
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    Yes, all providers are affected.

    There are two main culprits:

    First is badly trained bushing crews who are contracted by JPS to clear bush and trees away from the lines. These crews are trained to avoid the power lines, but they are not given any training on the relatively delicate nature of the fiber. and the damage they do when wielding their machetes. Even a seemingly trivial nick in the fibre and copper distribution plant causes serious damage to LIME, FLOW and other cable operators on the poles.

    I wonder whether LIME and FLOW hold JPS accountable for the damage caused by the JPS contractors? The telcos have to pay for each attachment to a JPS pole, so JPS must have an obligation to provide attachment without such disruptive events. If JPS are forced to pay the costs of the repairs they would soon start to select their bushing contractors a little more carefully, and provide training/supervision.

    Secondly, the action of the strand becoming energised. This happens when the primary JPS wires fall on to, or are connected to, the strand support wire, to which LIME, FLOW and the cable operators lash their fiber and copper cables.

    Some of the causes: Overloaded/overheight cane trucks hitting the wires. Illegal hookups to JPS (they often use the phone company strand as their 'neutral'). Vehicle accidents (and in my opinion this is often caused by the poles not being moved back to the correct alignment position when a road or pavement is widened). The incidence of a primary wire falling due to bad JPS maintenance of the lines is almost unheard of.

    The strand wire is connected to the other grounded elements at each pole (the static wire, the transformers, and the ground riser). in theory, at selected poles, this hardware is also grounded to a ground rod at the base of the pole. My experience is that maintenance of these ground rods is bad, and in many cases the ground rod itself is disconnected from the pole. I don't know whether JPS follow National Electrical Code in their construction, but somewhere between grounding every pole, and grounding every fifth pole, is specified.

    Anyway,... the problem is that the grounding is high resistance, and so when the primary wire comes in contact with the strand, insufficient current flows to open the safety breakers. So the line remains energised, the strand, and the thin lashing wire, lights up like the wire element in a toaster, and literally cuts its way through the plastic cables like a cheese wire.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    3
    Rep Power
    0

    Thumbs up

    :thumbsup: interesting

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    703
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    Very interesting. Reading posts like these remind me of the reason I joined these forums. Excellent post Pothole.
    Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H .Crucial Ballistix Sports 8Gig ddr3. Llano A8 3870k Quad Core APU. 22" Acer 1680x1050 LCD monitor + 32'' 1080p LCD HDTV. Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Vapor X video card. Mobile: Galaxy Note 4.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •