Wood v. Steel: Dawn of Justice

摘要

Although ASCE Standard 48, Design of Steel Transmission Pole Structures, specifically cautions the designer on the use of so called 'wood equivalent' steel poles, the practice of designing a transmission line with wood poles and then doing a one-for-one pre-engineered steel pole replacement continues. This not only can result in an incorrect design, but it also is likely not the most economical design. The cost differential between the lengths and classes of steel or wood poles can vary greatly resulting in very different optimized designs. Often an economical wood pole line may result in smaller poles with shorter spans where and economical steel pole line may result in taller poles with longer spans. This paper will explore three options for the optimized design of a transmission line. First the line design is optimized with wood poles, second, those wood poles are replaced one-for-one with 'wood equivalent' steel poles, and then finally, the transmission line is optimized with steel poles. Actual utility costs of wood poles and steel poles were used in the optimization and economic analysis. In addition to comparing the installed costs of each option and in accordance to ASCE Policy Statement 451, a life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) to include the long-term costs associated with the design, construction, operation, maintenance, and retirement phases as well as a discussion on resiliency of each design will be presented.