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Time Line - 1985: Otter Tail Power Uses Captive
Columns... |
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| Note: The only photos of the Captive Column
Emergency Tower being used were taken by Otter Tail Power. They are therefore protected by
copyright and can not be shown here. Some of those pictures appeared in the October 1985
issue of Transmission & Distribution magazine. The most striking photo showed the
installed tower standing in about 8 feet of water (basically in the middle of a lake). |
Otter Tail Power Company used it's supply of Captive Column
Emergency Restoration Beams to replace downed power lines due to flooding near Lake
Preston, South Dakota.
On April 29th, 1985 the Captive Column came to the rescue. Otter Tail Power pulled its
supply of Captive Columns from inventory and transported them to the site. The flooded
plain posed the major obstacle facing the installation of a replacement tower (about 8
feet of water stood at the location of the downed lines). This made it impossible to use a
crane, which is a necessity for installing a conventional tower by land. A traditional
tower could have been put in place with a helicopter, but the cost would have been
enormous. Fortunately for Otter Tail, the light weight of the Captive Column Emergency
Restoration Beams made it possible to do an end-run on the limitations of traditional
technology.
The Captive Columns were used in an elegant and straightforward fashion. The
tower system was assembled at the shore using 6 Captive Column sections. Floats were then
strapped to the tower and the entire system was then literally floated to the site. After
arriving at the downed power lines, the floats were removed but the crew had trouble
installing the tower because the Captive Columns were so light that they refused to sink!
This problem was overcome by attaching weights to the bottom of the tower. After the tower
was in place, the power lines were hoisted to the top. Only man power and simple tools
were used for the entire effort.
A senior engineer at Otter Tail Power later told Mr. Bosch that this tower stood
undamaged in this location for 7 months through blizzards. He was also told that this
Captive Column product saved the utility at least $50,000.00 on this one use alone.
Transmission & Distribution magazine, a utility trade journal, did an
article on this event and had this to say about it:
"It would have been impossible to accomplish this same task with a wood structure
because the weight would have been prohibitive. Permanent wood poles will be installed at
a later date, when the water has receded. When the Captive Column emergency restoration
structure is taken down and disassembled, it will be returned to stock to await its next
use." -- Transmission & Distribution, October 1985
The article quoted above was well written, stated the facts, and even had the
inventor's full name and address printed at the end of it. The author was an Otter Tail
Power engineer (Myron Broschat, PE). Here was a situation where two articles had been
printed on this Captive Column product, the first one predicting how it should work, and
the second one proving it. Mr. Bosch received no inquiries as a result of the second
article.
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