SOME ADVERSE SITUATIONS TO BUILD LINES OF ELECTRICITY’ S TRANSMISSION IN HIGH MOUNTAINS: FAR FROM RHETORIC, CLOSER TO REALITY

Theoretically, construction’s manuals have all specifications to prevent the collapse of the towers and therefore the grid, especially when you have high topographic gradients. In practice, sometimes manuals imposed limitations which are ignored. For example, the manual says not to install towers in areas of high topographic gradient in certain special features and sites would be wrong to follow the recommendations.

For three years touring by helicopter a few lines of interconnected national system of Colombia at low altitude for periodic review of the geology and the changes to the land by local and regional geological phenomena resulting allowed to make recommendations to mitigate adverse situations.

We conclude that under any pretext deterioration of the interconnection line sometimes allow even before being inaugurated, the following adverse situations that have not been analyzed by the software prior to construction. a) Mapped in detail and to exclude areas of former and current open pit mines. The towers should not be upslope of a mine, much less slope beneath it because the threat is high and the probability of release of a block of rock is high, b) Evaluation that no tower transmission line having one or more legs in or close to shallow drainage; the water in the rainy season grows flow and erosion occurs in the baseline surface runoff, beginning to erode the areas where the legs of the towers are, c) Mapping recent Quaternary phenomena as areas susceptible to move down, and other landslide indication, d) Mapping areas of soft rock by weathering, alteration, diagenesis, or fracturing, e) To map in detail areas active or inactive faulting.

This procedure can help to both geologists and engineers in order to protect their constructions; however, they can do brief modifications according to geological characteristics of the areas along the transmission line.