National Grid stockpiles wood to cover rails as it replaces power poles
LAKE PLACID — Trucks upon trucks loaded with long wooden beams have been coming into Lake Placid over the past few days and stockpiling the beams in a lot on Old Military Road beside the fire department.
Lake Placid’s electric superintendent, Kimball Daby, said National Grid has shipped in about 4,200 wooden beams to aid in replacing electrical poles about a mile down the neighboring railroad tracks. The beams will be lined together tightly to become a temporary road surface for heavy machinery.
Virginia Limmiatis, a spokeswoman for National Grid, said the wood is for “matting” to go across the top of the tracks to protect them.
“Matting is used to reduce or mitigate any damage from tire wheels or equipment,” she said.
Limmiatis and Daby said this work is unrelated to a planned power outage in Lake Placid, scheduled for 9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13 until 6 a.m. the next morning. They also said the poles in need of replacement are tangent structures that are safe to work on while active and will not require an outage.
Limmiatis said National Grid will replace six aged and damaged poles in the coming weeks.
“We did a survey of the poles, and they definitely need replacing,” Limmiatis said.