Project 4 - Padiham

In 2017 Advantage-NRG supplied a labour only force of 18 men with one supervisor to work at Padiham on a National Grid project for Babcock Networks rebuilding and refurbishing one of the oldest 400kv routes in the UK, this line had previously been restrung from quad bundle to triple bundled conductors but now the towers were the focus of attention.

These L6 design towers were constructed between 1967 and 1969. The teams were divided into; one assembly and erecting gang to utilise a crane for removing conductors, dismantling and erecting new replacement towers, one gang roving piecemeal with an all terrain vehicle and trailer to access individual towers and replace structural steel members on a like for like basis and one gang to replace tower cross-arms.

The cross arms gang would use a winch to lower off the insulators and  conductors arm by arm into the tower body then using the arm above to rig off lift away the bottom and middle cross arms respectively, then raising a small aluminium lattice derrick through the top cross arm hanging the bottom into the tower body on chains or wire slings (when used on a derrick these slings are referred to as Pennants not to be confused with the red pennants or flags demarcating the live circuit) and holding back the tip with an appropriate amount of luff by the use of wire bonds and tirfor winches. 

The top arm could then be lowered to the floor and replaced with a new one of the same design, a reversal of the removal operation could now take place to erect new cross arms to the middle and bottom phases along with replacing the insulators and conductors.

The photographs show the derrick in use and an overview showing crane erection on the hill top