No matter how you cut it, the Hopkins Fork 46-kV transmission line upgrade job was going to be tough, and AEP (Columbus, Ohio, U.S.) was committed to reduce the time customers went without power to a minimum. The upgrade focused on wooden-pole transmission structures that had been in place since the 1930s. The plans called for the replacement of 14 of the structures and maintenance on six more, all located in some of West Virginia's most remote and rugged mountain country. The line is the sole source of power for nearly 400 customers, and electricity would be out for them whenever work on the line was being done.

While planning the upgrade took several months, the same was not true for the rebuild. During two Sundays in June 2003, 70 AEP employees erected the structures, transferred conductors and dismantled the old structures in just 20 hours.

This job exemplifies AEP's changing work culture. Not too many years ago, a field employee would have been told what to do every step of the way. Now field personnel are making their own decisions on how to best accomplish the work.

A month of legwork went into securing the residents' permission to cross their property, which was no small task, considering that often would mean bulldozing makeshift roads so that heavy equipment like bucket and auger trucks could move in. You have to deal with people when you're crossing their property. It sometimes requires old-fashioned horse trading. In one key transaction, AEP agreed to remove an unwanted tree from Mrs. Kermit Coon's front yard in exchange for her allowing AEP passage across her land to several hard-to-reach worksites.

Once crews had access to the structure sites, engineers sited locations for the new poles. Some crews drilled holes for the new poles, while others installed anchors for guy wire or placed poles near where they would be erected.

About a week before the first outage, flyers were distributed to customers who would be without power during the work. AEP also notified pastors of the two churches affected by the outage.

From a marshaling point near Sherman High School, crews from West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky assembled on June 1 at 6:30 a.m. for job briefings. Crew supervisors went over important details of what had to be done that day. Safety received top billing on the list of priorities associated with each task.

Communication was a key challenge along the 4-mile (6.4-km) transmission corridor, which has no cellular phone coverage. Mobile radio and walkie-talkie coverage is also spotty. Sometimes the only way to reach a crew was to drive, walk or ride an all-terrain vehicle to the worksite.

Crews from transmission station, transmission line, distribution and fleet services, plus several contractors, worked together to rebuild the line in record time.
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