Yet Moor Pylons

T Pylons - Mark, Somerset, UK. ID JB_5766

T Pylons – Mark, Somerset, UK. ID JB_5766

Apologies for the obviously title to this post.

T Pylons

After spending a few days photographing traditional pylons that criss-cross the Somerset Levels, today I wanted to see what the brand new T pylons looked like.

Near the village of Mark there is a long series of building sites across the landscape.  It is a huge enterprise putting up 48 of these 35m high pylons along a 57km route through Somerset.

T Pylons - Mark, Somerset, UK. ID JB_5799

T Pylons – Mark, Somerset, UK. ID JB_5799

I guess they would not build them if they thought we did not need them.  So given that, I quite like them – at least I will once all that building work is finished and they have started to blend in a bit.

I’m left with a couple of questions, which I did not find an answer to on the internet…

T Pylons - Mark, Somerset, UK. ID JB_5759

T Pylons – Mark, Somerset, UK. ID JB_5759

First question – how are the towers and their cables maintained?  It seems they require virtually no maintenance.  But that is not no maintenance.  I could imagine someone climbing up inside as there appears to be a door at the bottom.  But I could not see how they get out at the top and then shimmy across to the cables.  Perhaps it is all done using a very big cherry picker boom lift.  That would explain the need for all those extra roads to get access to each tower.  It would be interesting to find out.

Second question – has anyone done a study into how this new design of pylon is used by flocks of birds.  Is there something that stops them landing along the top?  If not where do all the droppings go?

Bonus question – Do they self clean?

Links

  • https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/UK-National-Grid-prepares-for-first-T-pylon-for-Hi
  • https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-electricity-pylons
  • https://renewables-grid.eu/activities/best-practices/database.html?detail=129&cHash=173d210dc036dfe2ed5d8598b1badeba

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