Eversource, Frontier Litter Connecticut with Broken Utility Poles

Submitted by lonseidman t3_z88rno in Connecticut

The other day a utility pole caught fire due to some electrical issue. Eversource replaced the pole but left the communication cables strapped to the old pole suspended by a rope. No joke. They never coordinated with the other utilities to get it fixed and as of this writing Frontier's cables are still dangling in violation of PURA's rules. Comcast fixed theirs yesterday after I got in touch with them. Here's what it looked like:

https://preview.redd.it/tmc99shdwy2a1.jpg?width=2395&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07aa645936d2fbb2998ba0f784cb2c37e5e0e65a

If the rest of the neighborhood is any indicator this will likely stay like this if I don't keep pushing for the utilities to do their job. At the end of this post you'll see some examples of a few other poles in the neighborhood that are held together by straps and abandoned by Eversource. Frontier's owned poles in other parts of town are no better, like Eversource they also have some strapped together.

I reached out to PURA who now has new regulations to try and get rid of double poles and other deficient poles. What they need from "we the people" are a photo or two, pole numbers, locations, and the owners of the poles. Usually the owner is badged with Eversource (or CL&P their prior company), Frontier (or AT&T / SNET before) and a few other owners may be out there too. I will be compiling any you have and will send off to PURA when I get a good amount of them. It's probably easiest to drop them in this thread so I can just point them here. If there's another more efficient way to collect this info I'm all ears.

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This Eversource one is right down the street from the other one! They put a new pole in next to it but the old one remains.. there are a lot like this in the neighborhood.

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Another Frontier owned set of poles

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This Frontier pole was side swiped and for many years still had communications cables on it. They since moved them to a new pole but never took down the old one.

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Comments

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silasmoeckel t1_iyaoiz1 wrote

Speaking as an x linesman (phone) your not supposed to touch the others guys stuff. Some of us would do it when we knew the other guys in the same area but it was a good way to get chewed out if they complained. All you can do is call the other guys if they come out or not they have no control over.

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lonseidman OP t1_iyapg2c wrote

That I totally get. But Eversource dispatchers never reached out to the other utilities. Management needs to coordinate better!

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callmemoderation t1_iyatis9 wrote

This is a common Frontier practice. They are notified when one of their poles is involved in an accident and needs to be replaced. But they expect if there is electric on their poles that Eversource will just replace it for them.

But, Frontier doesn't want to be in the business of owning poles. They don't give shit about the pole. It's not profitable for them. So they will leave as is and eat the fines.

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silasmoeckel t1_iyaywai wrote

Frontier probably did get notified, them actually doing something about it with the few linesmen they still have is pretty low.

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buried_lede t1_iyaeuif wrote

They’re out of their minds. Thanks for posting this and the great pictures. I hope you send this to everyone - ag, pura, cga

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HazelFrederick t1_iyasfhd wrote

Orphan polls are pretty common. Lots of times it’s actually on the telecom company refusing to spend labor and resources on it. Eversource and UI can suck it nevertheless.

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lonseidman OP t1_iyaw3vs wrote

I'm finding around here they're both pretty bad about getting rid of the orphans. I have a few more examples in my neighborhood of abandoned Eversource poles that still have Frontier cables attached. Comcast has been a little better about moving things over.

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buried_lede t1_iyay2un wrote

Wow, if frontier doesn’t want them, maybe municipalities should start acquiring them and lease them to Frontier and Eversource

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CoarsePage t1_iycuriu wrote

Sure, but then you don't get to complain when your muni raises it's tax levy to pay linemen salaries.

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buried_lede t1_iydhken wrote

They still have to maintain them under a lease, (or not) but we’d be paid rent for them. And munis could fine them. Since they are showing their weakness, take from them

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keepitupxxx t1_iyavfsf wrote

Delivery fees put to good use🤔

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darthirule t1_iyarwi0 wrote

They replaced a bunch of poles in my town like a year ago. The other utilities still haven moved their lines to the new poles so there is just 2 poles next to each other all over town now.

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AnonElectricWorker t1_iydvzh3 wrote

There's an automated system, but virtually all of these (aside from electric, ironically, due to the safety issue) get thrown into a pile of "we'll get to it whenever we get to it".

Generally, it's communications that drags their feet. Frontier is barely functional as a business and companies like Comcast use cheap contractor labor.

FYI, shifts are done from the top to bottom, so... electric, then cable TV, then phone.

If you see a random pole with nothing on it, absolutely feel free to call the customer service of the company whose badge is in the pole and it'll get put on a (shorter) list to address.

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lonseidman OP t1_iydypu8 wrote

Thank you for the insight- it confirms some of the suspicions I have that there's not a lot of direct coordination between the utilities.

The challenge here is that Eversource is effectively the only regulated utility on the poles. Comcast and Frontier can take as long as they want as there's no restoration performance requirements from the regulator. As Frontier hooks up new fiber customers they take them off the regulated copper line as a prereq for a fiber install.

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AnonElectricWorker t1_iye1oki wrote

Routine work tends to go a bit smoother with the field engineers or foreman talking to each other and coordinating work, but most of what you have shown seems to be pole hits or storm damage.

FWIW, I believe the pole aspect of Frontier is still regulated by PURA, regardless of what line they have in the air.

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kingfarvito t1_iydx8tf wrote

We're not allowed to touch the comms lines when we do electrical work. Frontier and most other comms companies are so understaffed that they can't keep up even with hiring contractors. And they will definitely openly lie and say they haven't been notified of a pole needing transfered because it's cheaper for them to ignore it and eat the fine. We have entire crews that exist just to go around and pull the old pole butts out of the ground. When I was a part of one at least 30% of the poles we arrived at were poles frontier told us were ready to be pulled that had not yet been transfered.

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lonseidman OP t1_iydyu4p wrote

Frontier just attached new cables to an old pole today in my neighborhood.

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realbusabusa t1_iybdori wrote

Need escalating fines

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mkt853 t1_iybeomj wrote

$1 million per pole per day. Bet those poles get cleaned up quickly.

1