Rust as protective coating on bridge steel?

[Doofy]

The power companies here are installing steel sectional power poles inplace of wooden ones for standard transmission poles. So many wooden ones kerp snapping when trees come down, its hoped this stops that. Now all they need to do is repair wires, not remove and reset poles. One windstorm a few years back took out 3,500 poles. These poles are weathering steel coating. Look kind of nasty, but hopefully they will make for shorter outages.

We have very few power outages and very seldom lose a wooden power pole. When ours begin to lean or rot off at the bottom, they pound in an H-Beam and bolt the wooden pole to it. I would imagine that our wooden poles are fairly new and young compared to the rest of the country. I think ours were installed during the 40s-50s. Brown blends in fairly well, metal or wood.

 

[m7040]

Corten Steel is used in place of stainless in some cases. Corten will form a protective rust surface but will hold up to weather really well without treatment. I have used it for exhaust duct work for a Frame 6 GE gas turbine to avoid the expense of stainless. And since it can hold up to 900 degrees it was a perfect application that saved money