Qulliq Energy Corp. workers repair a broken pole on Niaqunngusiariaq Road, near the city’s aquatic centre, Saturday morning. Power across a big section of the city’s core was disconnected to protect workers, QEC said on Facebook. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Broken utility pole causes power outage across much of Iqaluit
Crews on scene fixing broken pole near city’s aquatic centre most of Saturday morning
Customers in some Iqaluit businesses cheered as the electricity returned around 1:15 p.m. Saturday, after an outage affected a big part of the city’s core much of the morning.
Qulliq Energy Corp. workers were repairing a broken utility pole on Niaqunngusiariaq Road in Iqaluit on Saturday morning.The crew has been on site since before 8:30 a.m.
QEC, which generates and provides electricity throughout Nunavut, posted a message to its Facebook page at around 8 a.m. informing residents of the outage, which extended throughout central Iqaluit.
The company said on Facebook that it had shut power off to the areas around NorthMart, Inuksuk High School, Ventures, and the museum to protect workers who were repairing the broken pole.
Naujaat can replace a pole in 25 minutes. Iqaluit took over 6 hours. Pathetic.
Unionized people take , their time , including lunch breaks
Thanks for your expert opinion, now let me poke it full of holes…
1. In an emergency it would take at least half an hour just to get an excavator on-site.
2. Even in good digging conditions you’ll need another half an hour to dig the hole. Longer if you start hitting rock or permafrost.
3. You need another hour to frame and tie-in the new pole.
4. You then need another hour to get the old pole out of the way.
All in all you’re looking at 3 to 4 hours minimum to do everything needed for a pole replacement. And even then thats all best case scenario.
Probably took longer on Saturday cause it was emergency work in a busy part of town.
Also…
5. There are no linemen in Naujaat. They would have to be flown in from Rankin.
How about you give some appreciation for the crew that spent their Saturday working so you could get your power back after an accident instead of making stuff up.
It looks like winter has, once again, surprised the ciry of Iqaluit.
Just looked out my windows. Still no sand. It’s crazy. We should be better at winter than just about everyone else.
I actually saw City crews out the night before at around 11 p.m., and again that morning around 6 a.m. I also drove that same road before the accident — it was definitely sandy.
Maybe driving at twice the speed limit had something to do with it…
anyone notice that no one said WHY ? the Darn Pole is Brocken ? as allways, it cant fail, people wanna be the one who is right and every one else is wrong. what happen to the pole ? it just snatch due to tension on the wired pulling it ? or a truck hit the pole ? WHY ? HOW ?