Tacoma Narrows Crossing

By Joel Goff; posted October 7, 2010

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The other day I helped my step day move his newly purchased 45' 1967 Chris Craft from it's old home to Gig Harbor. On the way we passed under the Narrows Bridge and the Narrows crossing for the Cushman transmission lines. This is where the 2 115kV circuits make the mile+ jump over Puget sound. At the time it was built it was an engineering marvel. Back in 2007 they replaced the original towers with these taller ones. This section is also insulated to 230kV, for any upgrades in the future. Each phase is carried in suspension on the tall towers and dead-ended at its own steel pole at each end. The towers are designed that if the insulator strings break the falling wire wont damage the ones below. More Info Here:

http://tdworld.com/overhead_transmission/crossing_tacoma_narrows/

Last year one of the aircraft warning balls caught fire. Crews had to de-energize the circuit and go out over the water on the wires. They used the original maintenance cart which hooks onto one of the conductors. More info here:

http://tdworld.com/overhead_transmission/line-crew-tacoma-narrows-crossing-20091201/

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