Yesterday, TEPCO surprised us with an afternoon visit to install the electrical service. I got back from lunch and there were a bunch of trucks at the bottom of the driveway. YAY!
It wasn’t a complete surprise, I guess. They said they’d be coming sometime between Wednesday and the end of the month. It was Wednesday.
They had two workers up on poles and three on the ground. The attention to safety was impressive. The guys on the poles roped in, secured their ladders with cinching belts, and used little platforms to stabilise themselves as they worked.
They removed the old cable that was damaged in the fire and ran a new cable from the main pole to the service pole. It was fun to watch. I took a video to show Tod and you can watch the action, too.
(They “yay” in the video is me reacting to a branch breaking. It was dead from the fire and too high for me to easily reach. Now it’s gone. Yay!)
After the long run was finished, they attached cable from the service pole to the house and the meter. It’s connected on an arm to lift it up to an approved height. I have been concerned that it would hang too low over the gabion, but its okay – we can still walk across without hitting our heads.
I tried to take pictures of this part of the action, but they asked me to stop because they were using a non-approved ladder. The approved ladder leans against the roof, which would damage it. I appreciate their care with my house (and avoidance of paying out insurance claims) but have to wonder why a stepladder isn’t part of the approved gear? Seems like there would be lots of cases when that might be handy and since they do it anyway with whatever ladder is handy, a safety-approved option would be a wise investment and change to the rules.
This is the approved ladder, which they used to climb up to disconnect the temporary construction service. I am sort of going to miss walking over there to switch the electricity on and off.
And that was it! 555 is on its own power now. Another step towards completion is completed.
