20 September 2014

ENEL 12

In an earlier post i mentioned that different crews did different jobs in this huge ENEL undertaking of running power lines up and down a remote section of Nicaragua's Caribbean coast - like the crew that chopped the right of way didn’t deliver the poles to the sites where they’d be put in the ground. And in keeping with this separation of duties, the crew that traveled up the beach in the truck from El Bluff was going to climb the poles and attach all the stuff that would make the poles ready to carry wire.  
All the usual complement of crew members plus a load of supplies was disgorged in our front yard where the supplies were set under the very clump of sea grapes where I used to live in a tent...shady and close to the house. The supplies would be left there and used as needed. The process of installing all this stuff on the poles would take several days.



     The truck does not have a front tire in a hole...it's parked on level ground.....



     The equipment brought consisted of the wooden four-by-four cross pieces that go near the top of all electric poles throughout the world; and the hardware, both metal and porcelain, that keep the cross pieces in place and carry the wire.  And yes, even with a full load of stuff, a crew of about twenty-five men were in and on the truck...all the men and all the equipment in these pictures.



     The first day the truck showed up all that happened was that the equipment was unloaded in our front yard under the same clump of sea grapes where I lived in a tent before the house was built. The spot was shady and close to the house; and would stay there for several days and used as needed.



     The crew chief took an inventory and some of the men immediately began to put together the pieces that could be put together ahead of time. Each pole would get two men plus supplies.




     (And in case you're wondering, these guys are dressed as we might for a day in autumn...but it was in the mid-80's when these pictures were taken.)