Crews Walk a Fine Line to the Top of Their Field

What these guys do, 100 feet in the air facing the cold, stinging wind and constant threat of a fall, is the ultimate in high-wire acts.

They are erecting steel towers for an $8-million Los Angeles Department of Water and Power project to bring more electricity to the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles.

“Not everyone can do this work,” said Bill Willis, who operates a 140-foot portable crane at the site near Parthenia Street and Wilbur Avenue. “It takes a special breed.”

The linemen and crane operators are installing 45 transmission towers along a six-mile corridor from Rinaldi Street in Granada Hills to Parthenia Street in Northridge.

Construction began last August, said Juan Rondon, supervisor for the DWP. The linemen are specialists picked out of a list of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members.

“We have guys here from all over the country, “ said Joe Garcia, 58, a union lineman from Prescott, Ariz., and the foreman on this job. Garcia has done utility line work all over the world for 35 years.

The transmission lines move large amounts of electric power over long distances at high voltage, usually to other utilities, like Southern California Edison, or to local receiving stations, Rondon said. Those stations reduce the voltage levels for delivery to homes, businesses and industries. The electric power will come from an existing DWP power plant in Castaic, via a connecting line from Castaic to the Rinaldi Station.

The line, or conductor, is supported by a 120-foot tower. Each tower is put together on the ground, bottom first, supported by a concrete base. When the initial construction is complete, the tower is 70 feet tall.

The top of the tower is about 52 feet tall and weighs as much as 10 tons. It is assembled on the ground and then hoisted into position.

Once in place, the linemen climb up and finish the job with air impact wrenches to tighten the bolts, connecting the sections.

The DWP is paying Bragg Crane service of Long Beach $500 per hour for the rental of the crane, which is the only one of its kind west of the Mississippi, and for the expertise of its operators.

“This crane is ideal for this kind of job,” Willis said. “It’s very efficient. With this crane, you can operate the controls on the ground. It can pick up up to 30 tons, and we can reach heights of 320 feet.”

So far, Rondon said all but four or five of the towers have been completed. The tower job should be complete by Sunday, leaving the final detail: stringing the line through the towers.

While the rains have slowed construction, Rondon said the DWP expects to finish the project by June 1.

Rushing through any job, however, is unthinkable to the linemen.

And thinking too much can be fatal.

“You can’t think about falling,” said lineman Joe Espinoza, 34, of Phoenix. “I’ve seen guys get electrocuted. I heard of people falling. You gotta be careful, but you try not to think about those things.”

Working 100 feet about the ground “isn’t a big deal” said Dave Meade, 53, of Troy, Ala. “I love it, “ he said.

Espinoza brings his family from job to job. He has a wife, Twinkle, 27, and three children, ages 4, 2 and 9 months.

Meade said he has been married “this time, for 16 happy years. I see my wife every three months.”

When the linemen are done with this job, they’ll gladly travel to the next.

“I’ve gotten a lot of offers to work for companies like Edison or the DWP,” Espinoza said.

“I don’t think I could be in one place all that long. I would go crazy if I had to go to the same job every day.”