Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / PWC Senior Manager Asset Management Power Services Stuart Eassie explains what was involved in removing a car that crashed into a power tower near Fisherman’s Wharf

Transcript

PWC Senior Manager Asset Management Power Services Stuart Eassie explains what was involved in removing a car that crashed into a power tower near Fisherman’s Wharf · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Last year, we were contacted by a number of people
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: wanting to know when a car which had collided with
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: power infrastructure was going to be removed. You know, people
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: were calling through saying Katie, it's a bit of an
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: eyesore anyway. Joining me on the line to give us
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a bit of an update is Power and Water Corporation
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Senior Manager of Assets Management Power Services, Stuart Easy. Good
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: morning to you, Stewart.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning and good morning tones Stuart. This car.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: It certainly was not Power and Water's fault that the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: car had crashed into that infrastructure, but it seems as
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: though it caused you guys quite a pain in the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: you know what. It took a while to get removed,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: didn't I.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: It certainly did, and obviously we would have loved to
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: get it removed sooner, but it was quite a complex assessment.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: They need to be done on the tower after the damage.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It's not your typical day to day thing that we
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: need to deal with, so we needed to make sure
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: that we work through the engineering and the repair plans
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: really thoroughly to absolutely get the conference that once to
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: remove that car there was no risk to the tower
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: or public safety.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it was like they crashed into to really
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: quite a large bit of infrastructure there. To those that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: sort of don't know what we're talking about, just explain
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the actual location for us if you can.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Stewart, we've got transmission lines that connect O and CBD
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: to the rest of their network. So those lines, a
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: couple of those large lines run along Tiger brand And Drive.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: So this tower runs is located on the corner intersection
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: of Tiger Breann and Drive and where the Fisherman Dwarf
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: area is. So it's about twenty meters off the road
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: and there's actually a little bit of table drains and
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: other street light poles between the road and the tower.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: So it's pretty extraordinary that it made all the way
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: off the road and into the tower.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. And you know, if you walk past
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: that area or if you drive past that area, you
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: know a lot of people were thinking, goodness, me, how
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: did it end up there? And I guess, you know,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: we don't know the answers to that, but how long
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: did it take to remove the car?
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: So, as I said, the damage that the car did
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to the tower because of the way it was sort
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: of launched onto the tower, so the damage was quite
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: widespread and affected multiple parts of the tower. The toilers
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: that what we call lattice towers, that they're made up
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: of lots of structural pieces, lots of steal components. So
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: when multiple components are damaged, it's really up to us
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  Speaker 2: to really ensure that there's no structural risk to the tower.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So that took a fair bit of engineering. These towers
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  Speaker 2: are built forty fifty years ago, so we really had
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: to go through a reengineering process ensure that every repair
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: that we were going to make and every bit of
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: damage was going to be adequately restored so we could
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: have absolute confidence that tower is going to continue to
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: operate for a very long time and reliably and safely.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I do understand. I mean you sort of touched
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: on it, but there were obviously there was the risk
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of interruptions, you know, to the power supply if that
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: full assessment wasn't conducted, and you know, if that work
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't done really quite carefully by the sounds of it.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, it's it's a perraori to make sure that,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: you know, once we did the repairs, we did them once,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: and we did them correctly, so there was no further
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: risk to supply or safety.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Well, Stuart, well done, well done on making sure that
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: it was all sort of all removed. Was the infrastructure
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: damaged in the end, like, was there much repair work
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that was needed?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Look, there's a few days of work involved with just
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: making sure that the replacement components that were installed were
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: done safely, just to again manage that risk around not
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: putting supply at risk or not having to disrupt customers.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: So yeah, just taking it, taking it to the right
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: pace to make sure that we could control the risks
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: and complete the work safely.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Well. Hor and Water Corporation's Senior Manager of Asset Management
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Power Services Stewart EC thank you so very much for
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: your time this morning. I appreciate you having a chat
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: with us and letting us know about the removal of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: that car.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks Stuart,