Alden’s
Underground Conduit Infrastructure series has investigated the reality of underground facilities: what they are and what happens when no one is looking.
Damage, violations, and trespass cause harm to these essential structures. This...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
A few weeks ago, Hurricane Harvey gushed into the streets of Houston and surrounding areas. It flooded businesses, homes, and schools. But it didn’t stop there. Water leaked from the streets into the manholes and handholes of underground...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
Foreign to our everyday lives above ground, the underground world can be quite mysterious. What lies beneath is unknown and unfamiliar. Twenty-first century urban explorers have begun to uncover findings of underground communities, secret maps,...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
The future of communications is rapidly progressing. With high-speed broadband becoming a basic requirement in daily life, extensive changes are being made to regulations and federal deployment plans. Initiatives such as the Connect America Fund...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
Why is it common for a provider to require several months (or more) to respond to a permit to attach request? Often, poor data is to blame. Owners may not be able to readily access the last time a safety inspection was performed, what condition...
Topics: Asset Data Management
Our communities are built on the success of our infrastructure. When something fails, we are all impacted – whether that infrastructure is a road, a bridge, power plant, or utility pole. Many people pass through their days unaware of the complex...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
Despite initiatives like the FCC's Connect America Fund, which aims to offset the costs of installing broadband infrastructure to rural and underserved areas, broadband deployment across the U.S. remains unsatisfactorily slow.
Topics: Broadband Deployment
Facing struggles with sluggish broadband deployment? A shared, centralized asset database can help asset owners and attachers speed up the process.
Telecommunications, broadband, and other service providers that want to attach to utility poles...
Topics: Centralized Asset Database
Before asset owners can reap the benefits of a shared, centralized asset database, they must be confident that their data will be completely secure.
The U.S. power grid is one of the top concerns for national security. Americans saw the very real...
Topics: Centralized Asset Database
Search tools deliver faster, more accessible results than traditional reports.
Data is a hot topic today. How do you collect it? Store it? And make use of it all? Believe it or not, more data was created in the last two years than in the previous...
Topics: Centralized Asset Database
Create a community of trained users to maximize your system’s value.
Topics: Centralized Asset Database
This time of year is all about celebrating America’s roots of independence and liberty. The United States was founded on self-reliance and human ingenuity. Each July 4th, we pay homage to those who helped establish our great country.
Topics: News
Modern and Innovative: Shared Asset Management in One Centralized System
In an ideal world, every company involved in the joint sharing of field assets would be able to have a secure, expansive system that integrates all relevant data into one...
The vast amount of asset data is overwhelming. Where should you begin?
Traditional joint use management began as a manual process. While much technology has been introduced, there is still more to do. Asset owners must be able to share timely and...
Topics: Centralized Asset Database
Better data management, consistency, and communication: three concepts to unite safety and access, multiplying productivity for all parties.
An intricate weaving of wires to the untrained eye, power lines, telephone lines, CATV lines, fiber, and...
Topics: Asset Data Management
Lack of Shared Data & Poor Communication impedes Broadband Deployment
While broadband is consistently being deployed across the nation, many would-be attachers are frustrated that implementation has not happened faster. Service providers are not...Topics: Broadband Deployment
Data security threats have become a primary focus for utility asset owners, as the risks from cyber threats grow in frequency and sophistication. A recent report published on the U.S. Department of Energy website states that:
“There have been no...
Topics: Asset Data Management
It’s been all over the news this past year: Google Fiber made plans to deploy broadband into several markets at a breakneck pace. Speed to market is critical and the behemoth company hit roadblocks. While we do not speak for Google, delays on new...
Topics: Asset Data Management
Sorting through paper records, emails, or asset records spread across several different spreadsheets or databases is no longer feasible for a best practice. Trying to keep track of maintenance needs, work requests (such as pole transfers), joint...
Topics: Asset Data Management, Infrastructure Asset Management
People are using more and more data with their various devices. For state and local governments, getting broadband access for their citizens is an important card in the game. However, broadband deployment is being delayed in many areas, in part...
Topics: Asset Data Management
Today’s utility asset data is a vast world of information. Much of it is valuable; some of it is not. Asset owners hold data about many different asset types (utility poles, underground conduit in manholes or vaults, towers, cables, etc.), in...
Topics: Asset Data Management, Infrastructure Asset Management
In January of 2016, there were more than 36,000 double poles in the state of Maryland alone. That was according to a report on utility pole attachments published by the Public Service Commission of Maryland. The report resulted from a workgroup...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
One of the most prevalent issues facing utility pole owners is aging pole transfers, but they don’t have to be a constant struggle.
Timely pole transfers rely on clear communications and good relationships between the pole owner and the...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Imagine you are sitting in your home one morning, enjoying the first cup of coffee and suddely the power goes out. In the dark, you begin to investigate, finding that the utility pole in your yard has fallen over into the street (due to...
Topics: Utility Pole Inspection
When damage to a utility pole is caught early, it can be treated to halt rot, decay or insect damage from further weakening the pole. Poles that are inspected regularly and treated can have significantly longer lives than those that are not....
Topics: Utility Asset Management
From utility pole placement requests to calling for faster Internet speeds, consumers are a powerful influence in driving growth within the utility and communications industries. As consumers’ needs expand and change, these industries must...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
When a utility pole needs to be replaced, the pole owner will schedule the required equipment transfers. Many utility poles are joint use assets, where several different companies typically have attached equipment on the same pole. This means...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
There are many reasons that cause double wood, which is the existence of two poles where only one should be.
Regardless of the cause, double wood represents potential hazards or violations, and a hassle for utility pole owners and municipalities...
Topics: Pole Transfers
Imagine a street lined with several sets of utility poles running up both sides, each owned by different companies. One set is owned by an electric utility, another set of poles is owned by a...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
Big data is being used in practically every industry today, yet many struggle with beneficial data utilization by having too much data without the tools and insight to make meaningful use of it. In many cases, large companies are so stressed out...
Topics: Internet of Things (IoT)
The big data revolution has left many utilities and communications companies scrambling to manage backlogs of stored information. Increasingly, some are finding that data-driven decisions based on old data can be worse than making decisions with...
The Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning are still in the early stages of what we see as an explosion of development. These two technological trends will be used in tandem to change the way electric utilities and communications...
Topics: Internet of Things (IoT)
There is no doubt the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is going to change the way we all do business. Companies, regulators and consumers are eager for a new wave of efficiency and productivity. However, the most valuable asset the IIoT will...
Topics: Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things – and the Industrial Internet of Things – promise significant changes and improvements for asset management and joint use in the years ahead
The information technology revolution is altering the way we communicate with...
Topics: Internet of Things (IoT)
Are aging field assets an urgent crisis, or a manageable long-term maintenance challenge?
Is aging infrastructure an imminent problem that is bearing down on the U.S. utilities industry? Or is it a minor challenge to be addressed over a long...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
As tempting as it is to see the start of a new year as a fresh beginning – an opportunity to forge ahead with new resolutions, new plans and exciting new initiatives – it’s also important to take a look back. To consider all that the utility and...
Topics: Field Asset Management, Infrastructure Asset Management, Outside Plant Services
Most asset owners today hold 100 percent of the liability for their field assets, such as utility poles, towers and conduit. As asset owners know all too well, this means they are fully responsible for all of their assets' safety and compliance,...
Topics: Network Asset Management
As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to gain momentum, more and more assets will be connected in the field. Advances in technology mean that internet-aware devices—such as sensors and other data capture technology—are becoming increasingly...
Topics: Network Asset Management
This post is the second in a two-part blog series that explores the potential for joint use field assets to become revenue-generating businesses. Part 1 looks at the first two strategies that include capturing and marketing available space and...
Topics: Field Asset Management
In the past, when companies were regulated entities, they could operate under a cost-plus business model that allowed them to earn profits on top of asset investments. Under this approach, the primary focus was to contain expenses. However, with...
Utility poles have become ubiquitous along the streets and highways in the U.S. over the last century, and that will not change anytime soon. As the number of attachers continues to grow, utility poles have become taller and thicker to support...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
On a sweltering summer afternoon in August of 2003, 21 North American power plants suddenly crashed offline, leaving 50 million people without power across the northeastern U.S. and the Canadian province of Ontario. The outage stopped trains and...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
This post is part 3 of a three-part blog series about the Internet of Things (IoT) and its impact on infrastructure asset management. To read part 2, go to “3 Ways the Internet of Things Will Change the Future of Infrastructure Asset Management.”
Topics: Field Asset Management
This post is part 2 of a blog series about the Internet of Things (IoT) and its impact on asset management. To read part 1, go to “What Does the Internet of Things Mean for Fixed Asset Management?”
Infrastructure asset management is evolving. In...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
If you haven't yet been captivated by the complex and exciting potential of “The Internet of Things,” I imagine you soon will. At its most basic level, the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the ability for any devices to be connected to the...
The FCC legislation that regulates utility poles has been in place for the past 20 years. Recent "One Touch Make Ready" municipal ordinances challenging this standing legislation are an attempt to update the current laws to ease the deployment of...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Outside Plant Services
In the ongoing conflict between incumbent utility pole owners and new market entries like Google Fiber, long-standing federal regulations are pitted against proposed new ordinances that municipalities are putting in place to support their local...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
Joint use issues have made the news lately as incumbent carriers, pole owners, and the “new kids on the block” butt heads. Recent entrants into the market such as Google Fiber are pushing for “One Touch Make Ready” polices. Their argument stems...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Outside Plant Services
With the push for "One Touch Make Ready" policies headlining local news stories across the U.S., we are taking a look at the impact this movement could have for pole owners and attachers if it moves forward as a new standard for joint use. We are...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
Bad weather happens. From the occasional light rain to seemingly increasing instances of extreme weather, tornadoes, hurricanes, ice storms, wind, hail and lightning all can wreak havoc on utility poles, lines and equipment.
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
Utility poles and conduit vaults (the underground version of a wire-carrying 40-foot pole) are everywhere in our world—along highways, down neighborhood streets and under the surface of busy intersections. They carry power, communications and...
Topics: Asset Data Management
It is evident that everyday life has changed significantly over the past few decades. Twenty years ago, most people could not have imagined we would be carrying around palm-sized devices capable of streaming movies, playing the world’s catalog of...
Topics: Asset Data Management
One of the keys to running a business well is having visible oversight—the high-level, future-focused information that allows for continued success. In joint use, that means reviewing your contracts to ensure they are updated, correct and working...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management, Contract Management & Negotiations
In the world of joint use, connection and collaboration between pole owners, conduit owners and attaching companies is key. It is inherent in the term: if cooperation was not necessary, it would be called "solitary use." The thing is, it is...
Topics: Asset Data Management, Contract Management & Negotiations
Quick: How long has it been since you thoroughly reviewed your joint use contracts? I'm talking about the joint use agreements you have (for good or ill) with all the owners and attachers for the field assets you own. Last week, right? Good for...
Topics: Trending Industry Issues, Contract Management & Negotiations
Flashback to the year 1991. George Bush Sr. held the presidency. The Bulls held court in the NBA. When it came to getting down to business, we came to our respective conference tables armed with paper, pens and handshakes. Online docu-sign...
Topics: Asset Data Management
We have drilled it into your head: double utility poles are a liability. They are a safety issue. They cost money. They drain your joint use department's resources. But what if we ended this series on double wood by telling you that they can also...
Topics: Asset Data Management
We do a lot of talking about double utility poles from a safety perspective for good reason. Leaning or damaged poles left to further deteriorate or simply linger in drivers' line of sight and pedestrians' line of travel are hardly anything to...
Topics: Managed Services
You may have noticed the trend on a return visit to that older industrial city you pulled up roots from years ago. The neighborhoods are looking a bit more colorful and lively. On vacation, you may have felt the pull toward a lovely walkable...
Topics: Trending Industry Issues
Allowing double utility poles to linger in the field comes with a number of costs. The cost of increased liability from potentially damaged equipment that could fail, causing property damage or injury. The direct monetary cost of fines that can...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Call it double wood, double utility poles, or just a double headache for your joint use department, neglecting to remove an old pole when a new one has been installed right next door—or in the attacher's case, transfer off of a pole in a timely...
Topics: Regulatory, Pole Transfers
2016 may be the year of the double utility pole.
Consult your favorite search engine's news section and you will find an increasing number of stories about everyone's (least) favorite double wood situation. Cities are now openly "tired of double...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
At Alden, our experts travel all over the country solving infrastructure asset management, data collection, data management and joint use issues for companies of all shapes and sizes. We see a lot of different situations, and as a result, we...
At Alden, our experts travel all over the country solving issues in infrastructure asset management, data collection, data management and joint use for companies of all shapes and sizes. We see a lot of different situations, and as a result, we...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Infrastructure Asset Management
Assessing what's in the field is a key component to asset management. If you do not know what's out there or the current health of those assets today, you are missing vital pieces of information and potentially chunks of revenue. Especially if...
Topics: Field Asset Management
Bootleg attachers are not born—they are made. While the occasional attaching company may be maliciously stealing space on your utility poles, the majority have likely fallen into unauthorized behavior through a variety of situations, from...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Unauthorized attachers and bootlegs, are both common industry terms for companies that attach equipment unpermitted and/or unbeknownst to the owner of the pole it hangs on, or the conduit it resides within. Because these characters are...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
For pole owners, attachers are partners: entities that rely on mutual agreement to operate together in one space. However, sometimes things go wrong in the relationship, creating liability for pole owners that were likely never intended.
Topics: Trending Industry Issues
Let’s discuss something called the butterfly effect for a moment. Aside from being a decently entertaining Ashton Kutcher-led mid-2000s film, it is an actual offshoot of chaos theory that theorizes that, in short, even the smallest action can...
As we have mentioned, the field of service providers—especially jack-of-all-trades businesses who blur the lines between telecommunications, entertainment and broadband internet—is getting a little crowded. Utility poles are now packed with...
In the technology world, it seems that most large companies are busy becoming jacks-of-all-trades. Broadband and cable companies now offer "voice and communication" services (previously known as telephone in our past lives). The search result...
Topics: Trending Industry Issues
Double wood has long been an unsightly issue for municipalities. Double poles look messy and degrade the look of city streets that residents would rather see clean and orderly. They are unsightly, impede views, clutter landscapes, and can...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
We frequently discuss the time and monetary constraints many joint use departments face, often in the context of resource contention. This is an issue that affects many, if not all, of our clients in some way. We have discovered that beyond the...
Topics: Managed Services, Resource Contention
Picture this: the year is 1966. Lyndon Johnson is President. A box of corn flakes costs a cool 39 cents. Star Trek graces the airwaves for the first time and the Orioles take the Major League pennant. Joint use is a much simpler thing. Parity...
Topics: Managed Services, JU History
In our everyday lives, as well as in business, the quality of our partnerships often hinges on the personalities involved. People are characters and certain job tasks require particular aptitudes and attitudes. In your best friends, you seek...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
Deep in the mines of days past, workers would carry along a small, caged bird on each subterranean trip. Its purpose? To serve as a warning signal. Should dangerous gasses like carbon monoxide build up in the tunnels, the songbird would expire...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Managed Services
When utility pole owners, attaching companies or anyone with a joint use department decide to ask for help, we have found it usually has to do with one big thing: resource contention. Many joint use departments simply do not have the resources to...
Topics: Field Asset Management, Infrastructure Asset Management
While many unexpected issues can be discovered during utility pole inspections, among the most common is double wood. For whatever reason—incompleted pole transfers, where you have two poles where there should only be one, is not a problem you...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Joint use is, by nature, a bit of a fractured business: it has two distinct sides to its story. On one hand, you have physical assets in the field— utility poles and conduit that require physical attention to install and maintain. On the other...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Moving is never easy. Whether you are talking about packing up and changing zip codes or detaching equipment and moving it to the next utility pole over, there is something uniquely bothersome about the simple act of relocation. In another...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
You may have heard the anecdote that moving—picking up your belongings, removing them from one location and depositing them in another—is one of life’s greatest stressors. We would bet this is true—especially when you are talking about utility...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
In the past few years, the idea and application of cloud computing has exploded. It almost seems as though we will cease to store important information on our personal devices or keep stacks of external drives gathering dust on our desks. Apps...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
With election season in full swing and the appointment of the next leader of the United States a mere six months away, our nation’s attention is tuned to television and social media, dissecting the views and every move of the field of hopefuls....
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management, Infrastructure Asset Management
We are now a month into 2016, and while a lot of resolutions have been made, we know that it is difficult to keep them as the year goes on. January is the proving ground for turning great end-of-year ideas into year-long habits, but if you have...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management, Infrastructure Asset Management
"Utility poles are like snowflakes: no two are alike." – Barry Wise, Alden Project Manager
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management, Infrastructure Asset Management
The phrase "If you don’t like the weather now, just wait a few minutes" was most likely quipped by Mark Twain, but just about any meteorologist in the country could have uttered it in the past few months. It is the year of the "El Niño" in the...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
Happy New Year to the utility and infrastructure asset management world! 2015 gave us lots to say about backlogs and field assessments, NESC violations, and the ever-turning field asset management cycle. 2016 will, we know, pose new challenges....
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management
It has been a banner couple of years for the construction industry. According to the American Institute of Architects, nationally, housing starts passed a million units in 2014 – the first time they have been at that rate since before the bubble...
Regular, thorough field inspections are the best path to complete visibility of the current status and condition of your plant. From pinpointing pole location, verifying asset health and identifying potential unauthorized (bootleg) attachers,...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
As business-critical decisions go, when the work gets heavy and resources get thin, this question is often heard: Should we use in-house staff or outsource?
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
Let's think about business strategy in two ways: proactive and reactive. These behaviors apply in every type of organization, in every market imaginable, but in the world of joint use, knowing the difference—and knowing what type of business you...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Large-scale growth. A boom in the housing market that requires many poles be erected or cable laid. Disaster. Weather. That day when all the utility poles in the field seem to age into maintenance issues at once.
There are a lot of unexpected...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
In the world of joint use management, there is always another task on your to-do list. If it is not requests to attach, it is requests to disconnect. If poles do not need maintenance, they need replacement.As you may guess, each of these actions...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
As fall’s crisp days begin in most places in the U.S. and the celebratory among us start thinking about overstuffed birds, starchy vegetables, and miles of sweet treats, we have been thinking of a joint use recipe that is very popular year round:
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Backlogs – a buildup of overdue and incomplete joint use and other work requests – come in all varieties, from pole transfer backlogs to pileups of permits to attach, from unremedied NESC violations to mountains of detach notices. Think this...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
As we previously discussed, it is possible for a company to assume ownership of "bad" utility poles. These "bad" assets are poles that have been decommissioned but are still standing alongside their replacements. This generally happens as a...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
If the term "bad poles" sounds ominous, that is because it is—at least in terms of your organization’s appetite for risk. No one wants these unwanted and generally unneeded assets on their books, but your organization may have even assumed...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Pole transfer requests are business as usual for attachers and utility pole owners. A pole is damaged, ages beyond its usefulness or is upgraded from wood to another material. Pole owners move their equipment to a new pole and request attachers...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Pole transfers are an unavoidable part of the joint use universe. This business-as-usual task requires resource allocation, time, thought and consistent record-keeping to keep track of what has been requested, how much time has elapsed, what...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Utility poles are hardly immortal. They age beyond useful life. They rot and are damaged by elements, human activity and nature. Pole owners decide to replace them with structures made of new and different materials, such as swapping a wooden...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Effective field asset management is not a straight line from installation to decommission; it should be viewed as a continuous loop, a cycle of data acquisition, interpretation, and renewal for all your field assets. The question is: Where are...
Effective field asset management is not a straight line from installation to decommission; it should be viewed as a continuous loop, a cycle of data acquisition, interpretation and renewal for all your field assets. The question is: Where are you...
Effective field asset management is not a straight line from installation to decommission; it should be viewed as a continuous loop, a cycle of data acquisition, interpretation, and renewal for all your field assets. The question is: Where are...
Effective field asset management is not a straight line from installation to decommission; it should be viewed as a continuous loop, a cycle of data acquisition, interpretation, and renewal for all your field assets. The question is: Where are...
You buy a brand new utility pole (or many), plan the job and install the poles. These field assets have an estimated life that you can generally count on before they will need to be replaced. On this day, you know that the data about those poles...
At Alden, we have audited millions of assets during utility pole inspections. Assessing poles for violations and safety concerns, surveying their locations, as well as counting and recording attachers, are all vital parts of keeping service...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Just a little under half of all U.S. states have deregulated energy[1], a construct that allows consumers to shop around for their service provider. The other half, however, are not immune to its influence. Deregulation changed the game for ...
Topics: Regulatory, Infrastructure Asset Management, State of the Industry
From first sight to final inspection, utility pole inspection is a vital part of successful field asset verification. So what really happens out there during assessment of equipment? In this issue, we finish out the chain of inspection events,...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
From first observation to final inspection, utility pole inspection is a vital part of successful field management. So what really happens out there during an equipment assessment? In this post, we talk about line inspections, referencing F, for...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
From first sight to final inspection, utility pole inspections are a vital part of successful field asset verification. So what really happens out there during assessment of equipment? Today, we step back and consider a higher-level concern for...
Topics: Asset Data Management, Asset Inventory Management, Pole Transfers, Utility Pole Inspection
From first sight to final inspection, inventories are a vital part of successful field asset management. So what really happens out there during an equipment assessment? Today, we take a look at another step in the process: Defining Asset...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
From first sight to final inspection, utility pole inspections are a vital part of successful field asset verification. So what really happens out there during assessment of equipment? Today, we take a look at the third step: Efficiently capture...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
From first sight to final inspection, utility pole inspections are a vital part of successful field asset management. So what really happens during inspection? Today, we take a look at the second step: Behold Up Close.
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
From first sight to final inspection a thorough utility pole inventory and inspection is a vital part of successful field asset management. But what actually happens during a utility pole inspection? Today we will discuss the first crucial step: ...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Utility Pole Inspection
With U.S. infrastructure aging in a big way, utility pole owners will soon be faced with a dilemma: replace or repair a large number of vital assets, or get smart fast with a new take on infrastructure asset management designed to predict when...
Topics: Infrastructure Asset Management, State of the Industry
From paper and pencil to spreadsheet and mouse, to connected, cloud-based joint use management systems, infrastructure asset management has changed dramatically over the past decade. Change however, is a constant, and as the state of assets and...
Asset verification and management has come a long way since the days of pencil and ledger, but taking the step toward using connected, automated technology to keep track of your valuable assets not only makes things easier, but more...
Topics: Asset Inventory Management
From first sight to final inspection, a thorough utility pole inventory and inspection is a vital part of successful field asset management. But what goes into a typical NESC inspection of poles in the field? Today, with the help of Alden’s...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
While there are many issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune.
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
While there are many issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune. Today, we address a problem that may be number...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
While there are dozens of issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune. This installment, the eighth in an ongoing...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
While there are dozens of issues in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often that we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune.
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
Perhaps the trickiest and most difficult aspect of asset management is bringing order to the human aspect of technician accountability.
A few months back, major media outlets ran a story on the U.S. Government and the loss of millions of dollars of ammunition in Afghanistan.[1] Before your mind goes to all things political on this topic, it is interesting to note that the story...
In everyday life, ESD or electrostatic discharge is a fairly harmless phenomenon. On a cool, dry day you may brush against something, creating a small electric charge that you then discharge with a little arc of electricity and a small, slightly...
Topics: Plug-in Spares Management
Most people probably do not pay much attention to the boxes on the side of the road called remote terminals or RTs. Most probably they do not realize they house equipment and function as important extensions to telco central office locations.
We would probably say that nearly everyone “wins” in the race to connect rural locations to high-speed internet—families, children, schools, small businesses, everyone—but the FCC recently announced the names of 40 entities who will receive a...
While there are many issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune. This blog is the sixth in an ongoing series...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
Wrapping and shipping are a couple of the activities we do not all enjoy. In the CO world, however, these tasks such as packing up and shipping out plugs from CO (central office) to CO, RT to CO or to other facilities within a company’s system, is a...
Topics: telecommunications asset management, Plug-in Spares Management
While there are many of joint use violation issues, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune. This blog is the fifth in an ongoing series detailing utility...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
In the Pacific Northwest, something interesting is happening in the world of joint use—collaboration, organization and connection that is finding its way across the country with happy copycat behavior state to state. At the center of it all is a...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
During inventory in the CO world, our experts see all kinds of interesting situations regarding plug-in assets and other equipment inside central offices and remote terminals. Thousands of dollars worth of plugs stacked up, touching one another,...
Topics: Plug-in Spares Management
While there are dozens of issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune. This article is the fourth in an ongoing...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
In the CO (central office) world, as well as elsewhere in the utility and telecommunications universe, there will always be specific pieces of equipment that are considered “critical”—that is, vital to operations and maintaining uninterrupted...
You could say it all started in Kansas City. In 2012, tech giant Google extended the high-speed broadband carrot to all residents of the mid-sized Kansas city, immediately sparking a race to become the second—and third and fourth—metro area to be...
The treated wooden utility pole is the all-star of the joint use world. Straight. Strong. Renewable. Resistant to wind and rain, and when treated, bugs and rot. These common and incredibly valuable assets are the backbone of both businesses and...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Think back to childhood. It is winter and the air is crisp and dry. You put on your thick wool socks, and with all your might, rub your feet back and forth across carpeting in your parents’ living room. You reach out with one tingling finger...
Topics: Plug-in Spares Management
At Alden, we declared November to be “Forget doing it yourself and get help!” month with a series of blogs dedicated to why using third-party administration (TPA) to solve some of your joint use issues might be a good idea. What is third-party...
At Alden, we declared November to be “Forget doing it yourself and get help!” month with a series of blogs dedicated to why using third-party administration (TPA) to solve some of your joint use issues might be a good idea. What is third-party...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
At Alden, we are declaring November “Forget doing it yourself and get help!” month with a series of blogs dedicated to why using third-party administration (TPA) to solve some of your joint use issues might be a good idea. What is third-party...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Utility poles come in a variety of materials from metal to concrete to composites such as fiberglass, however, we would like to turn our attention to—and delve into the details of—perhaps the most prevalent type of pole in use today: the treated...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
It is Halloween, and here on the Alden Joint Use Communications blog, we are thinking about some scary stuff. Are we having nightmares about zombies? Seeing witches around every corner? Hearing ghosts rustle down the hall? No.
The horrors on our...
Copper: A malleable great conductor of heat and electricity. Its alloys—brass, bronze and gunmetal—are some of the most sought-after materials in manufacturing. In the utility industry, copper is everywhere, grounding equipment to ensure public...
While there are dozens of issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune. This blog is the second in a series detailing...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
While there are dozens of violations recognized and fined under NESC code, there are a few we see so often we consider them violations of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune. This blog is the second in a series...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
While there are dozens of issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: repeat offenses to which no utility pole owner is immune. This blog is the second in a series detailing...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Picture this: Two poles stand where only one should be. You may call it “double wood," but utility pole owners and municipalities alike call it a danger and a hassle. It even has the potential to be an Ordinance violation.
The removal of double...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
In the telecom industry, some equipment is critical to maintaining normal operations. Inside a good deal of that equipment, circuitry packs called “plugs or plug-ins” make up the puzzle pieces that connect our calls and make communication...
Topics: Plug-in Spares Management
At the Alden Updater, we are declaring October utility pole safety month. We actually think this should be every month. In the interest of raising awareness and spurring action toward safer plants and poles everywhere in the U.S., we boldly claim...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Today begins a recurring series on the Alden Updater about telecommunications industry issues, equipment and central office organization, starting with a primer on one of the most important links in the call chain: the central office itself....
Telephone poles are a valuable asset for power utilities, municipalities and telecoms—hundreds to thousands of forty-foot revenue-generating properties. For the most part, poles generally remain under fairly static ownership much of their lives,...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
There is little doubt that good inventory management practices are valuable to nearly any business, especially an inventory process that relies on physical equipment to stay operational day to day. Much thought is given to calculating spares or...
Topics: Asset Inventory Management
Imagine this scenario: your asset inventory is complete. Min/max levels for spare equipment have been calculated, enough critical assets are available and easily locatable on the shelves, equipment for repair has been sent out, and broken and...
Topics: Plug-in Spares Management
As summer turns to fall in the U.S., the days get shorter, things needing completion before the holidays get more urgent, and your laundry list for the year may start to look a little daunting compared to the days left to accomplish it. Was a...
Topics: Asset Inventory Management
While a thorough, well-executed inventory is good for business in itself, using robust data collection software that is tightly integrated with your company’s asset catalog has a number of benefits. Today, we will discuss six worth giving some...
Topics: Regulatory
It is up to 100 times faster than traditional broadband, already available to corporate and institutional customers around the U.S., and is coming to homes in a mid-sized city near you. What is it? Gigabit broadband service. This month,...
In January of 2013, telecom giant AT&T agreed to buy parts of the Alltel cellular network for $780M. In October of the same year, mobile provider T-Mobile USA's parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG, agreed to buy rival phone carrier MetroPCS, to...
Topics: Regulatory
Among the many benefits of conducting thorough asset inventories regularly is the potential for spare asset recovery. Spare recovery is the "process of maximizing the value of unused or end-of-life assets through effective reuse or divestment."[1]
Topics: Regulatory
With warehouses of assets spread over miles of territory, hidden in trucks, closets and buildings in various states of organization, the prospect of completing a thorough inventory of all assets your business owns may feel like a daunting task....
Topics: Regulatory
We would like to pause for a moment to celebrate the birthday of one of the most influential forces in the Utility industry: the National Electric Safety Code (NESC). First introduced in August of 1914, the document hits a healthy 100 years in...
In today's economic climate, with efficiency and cost-effectiveness of utmost important, companies are compelled to evaluate the value of every business process in relation to cost. This includes the vital task of inventory. To control asset...
Biking for fitness, wellness and sustainable or "green" commuting is an activity that has swept our nation. It should come as no surprise: one of the oldest methods of mechanical transportation, biking burns about 300 calories per hour if you are...
Now that we have likely convinced you of the benefits of conducting a thorough inventory of all assets and materials, it is time to get your scanning, cataloging and organizing show on the road and conduct your own inventory. Before you do,...
Topics: Regulatory
Whether your business calls them min/max levels, safety stock levels, or something else, ensuring you have the right amount of equipment and other assets on hand—just enough, but not too much—is a delicate balance. Keep more than you need and you...
Topics: Regulatory
Double wood is an issue we have tackled before. A couple of times, in fact. Double poles, often the result of transfer backlogs, can lead to bigger problems, so we would like to revisit.
Double wood or poles can cause a number of problems and...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
The world changes fast. Constant technological shifts mean companies must upgrade equipment regularly to remain competitive and up-to-date with current standards. This is the price of doing business in the mile-a-minute 21st century, and...
Topics: Regulatory
This summer, one Texas co-op is facing $20,000-plus in losses due to the actions of some ingenious thieves. Armed with a homemade device that included standard, consumer-grade limb cutters, more than 85 spans of copper wire were taken from the...
We discuss utility pole assets often on the Alden Updater. You see them every day while you’re driving, walking, and just going about your business. If you are reading this blog, you may already know a lot about them. So, what are these...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Like a thorough housecleaning for your business, a well-performed inventory sheds light on lost assets, recovers revenue, identifies excess assets and eliminates waste. All this helps your organization to better manage stockpiles of various...
RFID (radio-frequency identification) is wireless, non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data,[1] and it may be the most useful technology many people may not be aware of.
The first patent for RFID, as it is...
Imagine it is inventory time again. You already know why conducting a thorough inventory of all assets is important. So what comes next? Simply collecting data on your assets is not enough; taking action based on that data is what gives an...
Topics: Regulatory
Imagine each utility pole across the world’s landscape as an individual entity with a position on the earth and a set of circumstances that makes it unique. Now, imagine if each pole could “speak.” What would it say? It depends on the questions...
Valuable assets can hide out anywhere. In that forgotten closet at headquarters, somewhere in the warehouse, in buildings your company has not inventoried in a while, etc. In industries such as telecommunications and utility, along with the many...
We have already discussed the benefits of having a joint use department, but what if your business is too small to truly support a full “department” dedicated to joint use? Outsourcing joint use management to a third party administrator (TPA) may...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
Most businesses keep spare equipment and other operationally important items on hand to ensure they are providing services, day after day, month after month without interruption.. Whether stored in warehouses, stashed at corporate headquarters,...
Topics: Regulatory
Conducting regular, successful asset inventories is as vital a business function as providing quality service to your customers. As we have mentioned before, your assets are your livelihood, and if you do not know what you have or the value of...
Topics: Regulatory
When a business has made the choice to conduct an asset inventory, the organization has a number of important decisions to make: in what format do you want the inventory data returned? How will you update your legacy systems with the new data?...
Topics: Regulatory
Everywhere you look, we are more and more connected. Our televisions stream high-definition content into our living rooms. Our gaming devices allow real-time play with competitors around the world. Our music comes from the cloud, not a stack of...
DAS is a hot button topic for some utility pole owners, and a growing issue in the world of joint use. Short for “distributed antenna system”, DAS is a network of antenna nodes often attached to utility poles to provide wireless service to a...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
Inventory management likely ranks at the top of people’s lists of stressful activities—and near the bottom in terms of excitement. Regardless of your enthusiasm for finding, coding, logging, organizing and reconciling every piece of spare...
Topics: Regulatory
Utility poles are visible, tangible assets—40 feet of hard to forget wood towering above ground. Exposed and often installed in remote areas, it is easy to imagine bootleg attachers finding their way onto them, and creating potential violations...
Topics: telecommunications asset management, Conduit Inventory & Inspection
Navigating the connections, communications, contracts and other complexities that come with joint use asset management may be one of the most intense aspects of owning utility poles and vaults. From enforcing contract details and communication...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
We have already given you Five Reasons to Take Control of your Inventory Audit Cycle, but numbers two and three on the list—safety and equipment repair—are so important, they are worth a deeper discussion. Equipment in the field can quickly turn...
Joint use does not exist in a vacuum—there are many other departments and divisions within a typical pole-owning utility or municipality’s operations that rely on accurate, timely information regarding the placement and management of attachments...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
Around and around it goes; the inventory audit cycle. Audits rely on you to start them as they do not happen by themselves. If you need a little motivation however, we can help, with five reasons to take control and take action with an inventory...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Pole Inspection
Think for a moment about joint use contracts. These detail-filled documents are an important part of any utility pole owner’s everyday business, putting into writing the expectations and limitations of relationships with attaching companies....
In April of 2011, the FCC adopted an order that significantly overhauled pole attachment guidelines. Among other things, this directive detailed the specific rights and obligations for pole owners and attachers regarding access, attachment rates...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
No utility pole owner relishes the thought of undocumented, unwanted, un-paid bootleg attachments hiding out on their poles. How can an owner combat the problem and collect the rent and fees that are due? Further, how can pole owners stop further...
According to a study conducted in New York State, among 1,134 non-standard conditions discovered during 2,023 utility pole inspections, a full five percent of poles in violation were in the midst of an uncompleted transfer.[1] We have already...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Utility pole real estate is prime property, which is the main reason why pole owners should never suffer space and revenue-wasting bootleg attachers. It is also important to consider abandoned equipment taking up valuable space on poles. Whether...
Being a utility pole owner is complicated; there are a lot of moving—and stationary—parts to keep track of and control. We know that most people have all the best intentions, and work hard to be organized and properly manage their company’s poles...
After all the homework is done, after you have researched, specified and purchased a joint use management software solution, what’s next? Implementation. It is a scary word: the culmination of all your company’s hard work to make sure you are...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
The utility pole to utility pole attachment transfer process generally goes something like this: A utility pole is damaged, by any number of forces. Dry rot may have impaired its structure. A woodpecker may have made it her home. A car might have...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
In the age of streaming video and multi-player online games, the always-on connectivity and speed of broadband Internet at home is becoming the norm for most people in the U.S. Notice we said “most.” According to AOL, more than 2.5 million people...
There is little doubt that a thorough field inventory has its benefits. Taking the time to visually inspect utility poles and create an accurate database of information such as location, age, condition, attachers, repairs made, transfers needed...
Topics: Field Asset Management
The common spreadsheet… for many, it seems the perfect solution for tracking utility pole assets. According to research conducted by Financial Director Magazine, 62% of businesses of responders are currently using spreadsheets as the primary...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
Utility poles: Out there in the wilderness and on roadsides they stand, stoically marching through small towns and big cities all over the U.S. They are invisible to most, unsightly to others, but typically out of mind. However, ignoring them can...
The now ubiquitous alternating thick-and-thin lines of the standard barcode first appeared in supermarkets in the early 1960’s, but barcode history reaches back even further. The first patent for a bar code type product was issued to inventors...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
When it comes to joint use management, there is a lot to know. From regulatory differences state to state, to the subtleties of contract management, to simply having a good working knowledge of your attachers and their businesses, the management...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
As the days lengthen and the sun shines a little more warmly on us, it is time to shake the dust out of our homes, our lives, and even our businesses. That’s right, it is spring cleaning time, and for utility pole owners, that means cleaning house
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Today, there are an estimated 134 million utility poles standing tall in the U.S. alone, almost one for every other person in the country.[1] To say that all exist in varying states of repair and disrepair is an understatement. A wide variety of...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
When an unknown individual slipped into PG&E’s Metcalf Substation in April 2013 and fired a rifle on transformers causing more than $15 million in damage, many in the utility industry considered it a security game-changer. “It was a pretty big...
A quick update on the local vs. federal issue regarding control over utility pole attachment rate setting, an issue currently being discussed in house legislature sessions across the U.S. Ohio, it seems, has struck a deal that did not require...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
They may not be as visible as the typical utility pole, but underground vaults are a vital—and often overlooked—link in the utility service chain.
We may walk over them every day, but it does not pay to neglect them. For example, two major cities...
Topics: telecommunications asset management, Conduit Inventory & Inspection
You may not have heard much about it, but in April of 2013, someone slipped into an underground vault near a busy freeway in California and cut a few telephone cables. Half an hour later, snipers began firing on a nearby electrical substation, ...
Topics: telecommunications asset management, Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
A sniper opened fire on a California substation on a dark night in April of 2013, however, the story began sometime earlier in an underground vault, where telephone lines were cut hours before the substation was fired upon. While grid security in...
Topics: telecommunications asset management, Joint Use Asset Management, Conduit Inventory & Inspection
In the beginning, in the great wide-open spaces of America, there were only limited, analog entertainment options. Television stations sent signals that were picked up by rooftop antennae, pointed toward the metropolitan meccas. Some homes—those...
Topics: telecommunications asset management, Utility Asset Management
From Smokey the Bear to OSHA to your own mother, “safety first” is a message we have heard over and over again in our personal and professional lives. In addition, safety, as it pertains to power poles, is a huge deal—health, livelihoods and...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
Pencil and paper? Excel spreadsheets? Straight from memory? How do you do joint use management?
Whether you are responsible for 10 utility poles or...
Topics: Joint Use Asset Management
It is an issue that splits the nation, often straight down party lines: local versus state control. Now, you can count utility pole attachments among the things this polarizing matter affects.
In February of this year, the Missouri House of...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
A Google search for “storm damage, power poles” turns up roughly 1.8 million hits. That is a lot of news stories, white papers, and casual mentions of power poles being damaged due to inclement weather. Tally it up, and to fix those broken,...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Accidents involving utility poles happen. Many involve automobiles toppling or breaking poles in crashes — a situation pole owners can mitigate a number of ways— but attachment load and the health of the pole itself can also play a role in...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Today, the world is more data hungry than ever. At the end of 2013, there were more mobile devices than people on earth. Ninety percent of adults now have a mobile device within reach 100 percent of the time. There will be more than seven billion...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
The nature—and volume—of pole attachment has evolved immensely over the past 35 years. Pre-1978, space on utility poles was mostly reserved for the power utility and the telecommunications provider for an area. Post-1978, cable companies and...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Three downed utility poles in Malibu, CA resulted in the burning of more than 4,521 acres, the payment of $63.5 million in settlement agreements and now, a long list of new rules adopted by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC)[1]....
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
On average, there are between 60,000 and 80,000 wildfires that occur in the United States each year, burning anywhere from 3 million to almost 10 million acres of land as they spread across the nation1. With temperatures on the rise throughout...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Topics: Utility Asset Management
As a utility pole owner, one of the challenges you regularly face is coordinating pole transfers. The pole owner must coordinate with each attacher on the pole being replaced to ensure they remove equipment from the old pole and transfer it to...
Topics: Pole Transfers
Increasing demands on the utilities industry brings an increase in the need for accurate asset data. Consider the following situation:
A utility company receives a request from another company to rent space for attachments on several hundred...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Having up-to-date asset inventory data is important for many reasons. Current, accurate data can be used to document ownership, verify your inventory is in working order, and ensure the reliability of your service. Having current inventory data...
Safety is paramount in the power industry. And with a utility pole, there are many opportunities for safety risks.. Attachment overloading could weaken the pole’s structural integrity and bring it down. The attachment itself could fall and...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Whether you're managing utility poles, underground utilities, or both, you need to keep careful track of your assets, but how do you track data effectively on that much inventory? It's not like a warehouse, wherein you check inventory once a...
Topics: Conduit Inventory & Inspection
For most people, utility poles are simply part of the scenery that blends into the landscape of cities and towns. Utility poles provide your community with vital electrical, telephone, cable and broadband services, and most people take these...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Utility poles need to be removed for various reasons. The pole may be old or damaged and needs replacing. Sometimes the location of the pole is found to be in violation of the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) and it needs to be relocated...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Utility poles first began lining our roadways in 1844, but the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC), which sets the guidelines for electric power and utility systems — including utility poles — was not written until decades later, and the...
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
The average life span of a wood utility pole is approximately 35 years,1 but there are many different factors that contribute to pole depreciation (such as soil and climate conditions), as well as pole appreciation (like preservatives and...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Storms are often the cause of damage to utility poles and power lines. When large storm systems, such as hurricanes, come through an area, there is always the potential for utility poles to fail causing widespread power outages to occur, in...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Utility poles were first used in the mid-19th century — over 150 years ago. It should be no surprise that the industry has changed since that time: cables are thicker and are often made of optical fibers instead of copper allowing them to carry...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
With wind speeds of up to 300 miles per hour, widths that reach more than one mile across and paths of destruction that can exceed 50 miles long, tornadoes are arguably the most violent storms that occur in nature.1 Capable of toppling trees,...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
From time to time, utility poles need to be replaced. When that happens, a pole transfer is scheduled. The issue with this is that most utility poles are joint use assets utilized by a variety of companies. Different companies place attachments...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Utility pole owners are responsible not only for the pole itself, but also for all of the attachments and equipment on placed on it. It is the pole owner’s job to keep track of what and how many attachments are on each utility pole, so that no...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
The key to efficiently managing your telecommunications company assets and inventory is comprehensive, up-to-date data. Knowledge is power: The more information you have readily accessible, the better you are able to keep track of your assets,...
Topics: News
How much does it cost to move a utility pole? About $2,208 an inch in Portland, Ore. where one such pole had to be shifted a total of eight inches (for a total of $17,664). Not to mention, of course, the cost of labor in addition to the cost in...
Over time, street and traffic road signs accumulate scratches, graffiti, and other damage that affects visibility and reflectiveness, which creates a dangerous condition. If a stop sign cannot be seen at an intersection, accidents can happen.
...
Topics: Municipal Asset Management
In any field, up-to-date, accurate data is essential for making decisions and accomplishing goals. If you begin a project based on false assumptions, the results can be disastrous. Nowhere is this more apparent than in utility pole management....
Managing joint use utility poles is no easy task – just ask a joint use administrator. There are so many details to track, from pole attachment details to NESC or rot/strength inspection data, contract information, attachment permits to...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Pole Transfers
Organizations that deal with geographically diverse field assets can have a difficult time tracking and managing each asset on paper or simple electronic spreadsheets. Such field assets can be utility poles, conduit, cell towers or other assets...
Topics: Field Asset Management
Any kind of joint use management, whether it is in utilities, telecommunications, or municipalities, can be a difficult task. You must keep careful track of the use of assets and inventory by a diverse group of companies, and stay abreast of...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
The joint use of utility poles is a great solution to an important problem. A number of different companies want to place equipment in a certain geographic area to deliver their services to consumers. Power companies, cable companies, cell phone...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Companies have been sharing space on utility poles for a long time and while this “joint use” concept has remained the same (utility pole owners rent space to other companies, called attachers, such as a telephone company, to attach equipment...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Utility pole transfers occur for a number of reasons. A pole can be damaged in a storm or a vehicular accident can occur which necessitates a new pole to be put in its place. A pole can be discovered to have rot or decay due to age and need to...
Topics: Pole Transfers
Snow days can be fun, but winter storms can be some of the must damaging weather events to occur throughout the year. Winter storms affect communities and the people within them in a number of ways - from health risks due to below-freezing...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
There are more than 1,000 fatal crashes due to utility pole collisions that occur each year throughout the United States . Such crashes are known as fixed-object, accidents that involve a vehicle striking an object that will move very little...
What is the current state of your utility poles? How old are they? How solid? Over time, wood can rot and decay, be eaten away by insects, or develop any number of other problems that spell disaster for wood utility poles. If a pole gives out...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Utility poles are generally used by a variety of sources at once, from electrical to cable to telecommunications, and more. Each of these entities has a set of equipment and attachments that are installed on the same utility pole. With these...
Most of the challenges faced by utility pole owners are due to a lack of communication with the companies using their poles (the attachers). A Joint Use Administrator did not receive the work order for a pole transfer, so now there is a double...
Joint use utility poles can be a major point of contention between the various companies that use them. Pole owners and attachers face these challenges daily. There are cost issues, liability issues, and so much more. These challenges often stem...
Imagine you are driving down the road in your car when all of a sudden, without warning, a utility pole snaps and comes crashing down in front of you on the windshield of your car, mere inches from your seat. This is exactly what happened to a...
Topics: Regulatory
Once upon a time (in the mid-19th century), utility poles held a single line of electrical cable. Today, in a world with multiple power companies, telephone companies, cable companies and broadband providers, many businesses all need utility...
For economical as well as practical reasons, a single utility pole is used to carry multiple lines in order to deliver electricity, telecommunications services, cable/broadband and other utility services to the community at large. These power...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Did you know that the average office worker in the United States uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year? Take a look at some other startling facts compiled by The Paperless Project :
• A misfiled document costs $125; a lost document costs...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Utility poles, much like the trees they are made from, are subject to rot and decay. Even with preservative treatments that are used to protect them against environmental factors, the life a pole ranges from only 25-50 years (depending on its...
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management, Pole Transfers
A wise man once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” That wise man was Charles Darwin, and while he may have been referring to...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Fliers with photos of lost pets, garage sale notices, local business advertisements, even political campaign posters — these are all commonly seen tacked on utility poles throughout neighborhoods and city streets. What most of the people posting...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
The National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) “sets the ground rules for the practical safeguarding of persons during the installation, operation or maintenance of electric supply and communication lines and associated equipment” across the United...
Topics: Regulatory
All businesses are susceptible to theft — including utility pole owners. While it is not likely anyone will dig up a 40 foot tall wooden pole and walk away with it, it is quite possible that some company will come along and attach their...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
The standard utility pole in the United States is 40ft long (though it can reach up to 120ft) and can carry voltages of up to 33 kilovolts. Between its physical and electrical capacity, a utility pole has the potential to cause a lot of damage,...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Record breaking cold temperatures, winter storms and Spring time tornadoes and hurricanes often wreak havoc on utility poles.
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Partnerships between electric utility companies and telecommunication providers have existed for almost a century as the need for utility pole space, combined with the limited number of utility poles that can exist along any given street, has...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Alden Systems recently attended and exhibited at the TVPPA Engineering & Operations Conference in Murfreesboro, TN, August 6th–9th.
Alden Sales Representative Jacob Harrison had this to say:
Topics: Regulatory
Alden Systems attended the Florida Utilities Coordinating Committee Summer Educational Conference at the Marco Island Hilton, August 6th - 8th.
Topics: Utility Asset Management, Joint Use Asset Management
The National Rural Electric Association or NRECA, commented yesterday regarding a environmental lawsuit that would have required wood poles to be regulated under the federal water and waste laws. Read the entire article here.
Topics: Regulatory, Utility Asset Management
According to the North American Wood Pole Council, the average life span of a wood utility pole is approximately 35-years. However, evidence suggests that a properly maintained pole can last as long as 75-years with innovative testing and...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
Like many businesses, utility companies generally own and operate the majority of their equipment and resources independently. The major exception involves the means of transmitting and delivering power and communications...
Topics: Utility Asset Management
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