HOUSTON – CenterPoint Energy continues to repair its infrastructure from a double punch of the May derecho followed by Hurricane Beryl. But their work is turning some heads in the process.
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In the Garden Oaks neighborhood of Houston, a utility pole was replaced with a new pole.
However, the crews left a chunk of the old pole dangling with rope high above the busy street and walkway.
“Looking at it up close, kind of looks like a cable tie holding up this six foot piece of pole,” said David Ford, who contacted the KPRC 2 Help Desk.
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The issue started last Tuesday after a CenterPoint Energy crew replaced an old pole. But the problem is, they left part of the pole dangling like a necklace on the newly installed wooden pole.
“At the time we thought, well, this is good news,” Ford explained. “Unfortunately, that looks like we now have a large projectile ready to dislodge at any time.”
That’s the worry of several neighbors along Mountwood Street in Garden Oaks.
Philip Bush: “It looks like, you know, it could fall.”
Gage Goulding: “Would you want to be walking with your wife underneath here?”
Philip Bush: “No, I really wouldn’t.”
Just a few hours after KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding asked CenterPoint about the dangling danger, a crew arrived to fix the problem.
They spent a few hours on Tuesday afternoon moving the lines from the old hanging pole to the newly installed pole.
Here’s what CenterPoint Energy told us:
“In addition to our Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, a series of immediate actions to improve resiliency and reduce the risk of outages from the next major storm or hurricane and more than 40 critical actions in total to strengthen the electric grid and improve our customer communications and emergency coordination, we are continuously focused on improving outcomes for our customers. That will always mean a mix of installing new facilities to serve homes and businesses, as well as near-term maintenance work to enhance safety, reliability and resiliency.
As part of the pole replacement process – whether it is related to our initiative or part of our day-to-day safety, reliability and resiliency work – when our crews are unable to transfer the non-CenterPoint attachment on one of our poles, we communicate with the attachment owner to perform this work. In this specific case, the wires and attachments are not owned by CenterPoint and must be transferred by the responsible company. The attachment at this location has been flagged and has been assigned for resolution.”
According to CenterPoint, their crews are not responsible for moving the telecommunication lines. As for the dangling chunk of power pole, the company says this is the “standard practice” and says this is “safe.”
A spokesperson said if you see this happening in your neighborhood, you shouldn’t be alarmed.
Also, when asked why a wooded pole was used instead of a new, stronger fiberglass pole, CenterPoint said the wooded pole was deemed to be sufficient for the area.
“We do appreciate that they’re taking this as seriously as they possibly can,” Ford said. “But the recovery needs to keep moving and they need to take these little details more seriously.”