While you may be tempted to categorize the strange circumstances that befell a 15th Ave E Metro power pole on Saturday as further evidence of our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, really a puddle is to blame. Or, at least, rot.
“The pole was an anomaly in that it had a soft core that was becoming rotten from the inside out. The outer shell was in good condition and gave no indication of an internal problem,” Jerry Rutledge, the manager of Metro’s Power and Facilities group, tells CHS.
On Saturday the pole used to support cables for the Metro Route 10 electric trolleys suddenly snapped and leaned out over the roadway along 15th Ave E directly in front of the Bagel Deli and nearby a bustling Smith.
“I walked past this pole about 5 seconds before it happened,” wrote eyewitness Passer-by in the CHS comments. “It popped so I turned around and saw it fall onto the trolley wires overhead. Wires were swinging and sparking up a storm. Nothing hit it- it just snapped at the base.”
There were no injuries but the street was closed for most of the afternoon as crews assessed the best way to go about repairing the dangling pole. The pole was cut out and replaced by Saturday night. It carried no utilities for Seattle City Light so power was not lost in the area.
What happened? Rutledge says possibly bad luck. The manager says its poles are inspected annually and that there is “an ongoing replacement program in place where poles are replaced every year.” Rutledge said it’s rare for Metro’s “top-grade” cedar poles to rot from the inside without showing external rot.
Blame? The perma-puddle near Smith during Seattle’s rainy months (September 26th to August 15th) is a likely culprit. Rutledge called it a “poor drainage area.” The shoe soaker is a doozy — but can’t say CHS ever walked through and thought about the body of water’s impact on the area’s infrastructure.
A rep from SDOT tells us the department will work with Metro to address the drainage issue near the pole. Say goodbye to Lake Smith, hopefully.
In the meanwhile, Rutledge says Metro believes the snap was an extremely rare event but has decided to send out inspection crews to check out other poles installed during the same timeframe that may have come from the same manufacturing batch.The issue is nothing on the scale of the search Seattle City Light had to undertake late last year as it hunted for utility poles leaking electricity but it should, hopefully, provide a little peace of mind the next time you walk under a wooden pole on Capitol Hill.
“during Seattle’s rainy months (September 26th to August 15th”
I used to live around the corner from this location. I put in a request to SDOT to fix that stupid puddle that was responsible for the snapped pole. The city did not fix the sidewalk (technically, apparently this is the responsibility of the building owner, they claim) so now they have a super expensive fix on their hands. Great!
Jerry Rutdledge said the rotten core cannot be detected from the outside, so apparently Metro decided it was a good idea to waste some time looking at more outer shells.
I forwarded this to a friend who worked at the Bagel Deli in the mid to late ’90s. That puddle has been there a LONG time.
Here is his response:
“Man! That’s pretty wild stuff – I do remember that puddle…the trick is to get a running start at it and then use the front of the Bagel Deli as a surface off which to ricochet oneself… Not too hard if you’re empty handed and traveling light, though impossible if you’re packing a few dozen day-olds for the NW Harvest kitchen.”
awesome. thanks!
Thanks for the followup! It’s so nice to have a reliable source of info for neighborhood news.
over the years, many of us have tangled with that puddle, and lost!
Hopefully King County Metro transit staff can get their hands on a tree auger and core sample their wood poles, and not waste their time on a purely visual inspection.
And what about the telephone poles? The ones with no SCL wires or streetlights, or those not supporting the overhead catenary (trolley) wires?