An investigation into the collapse of a power pylon near Glorit in the Auckland region, which caused a widespread power outage, has identified contractor error as the root cause.
Omexom, the contractor responsible for maintaining the Transpower transmission tower servicing 100,000 properties, failed to follow standard procedures.
An inexperienced worker, inadequately supervised, removed nuts from three of the four legs of Tower 130, leading to its collapse on June 20. This was not the first instance of such negligence, contradicting Omexom’s standard practice of removing nuts from only one leg at a time.
The government condemned the incident, with the power cut costs estimated at $60 million.
The 73-page report released by investigator Daniel Twigg emphasised that Omexom’s civil works field staff were trained to remove nuts from one tower leg at a time, a procedure not followed during the incident. The team leader assigned the inexperienced worker to remove the nuts, compromising the tower’s stability.
Transpower halted all baseplate work nationwide and plans to implement revised procedures and enhanced training to prevent future incidents.
Transpower’s acting chief executive, John Clarke, and Omexom’s managing director, Mornez Green, acknowledged the failure and committed to ensuring such an incident never recurs.
Image credit: Erik van Dijk
Numb nut(s)?👍
Haha numb nuts, what idiot would take all the bolts out?, I know DEI hire.
This is how the ancient Greeks and Romans did construction. If it stayed up, hmmm let’s try it again.
If it fell down,….. hmmm let’s try something different.
Old Chinese proverb say, do not unscrew nuts from tower.
Confucius say “Man who have tool in hand not necessarily mechanic”!
The cretin in question should be held personally liable for the $60,000,000.
Somebody pointed out Omexom is heavily management structured with the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing
Ironically what caused the collapse of the Tower of Babel
Confusion
Race mixing
It was the nut that undid the nut that made Northland go nuts.
Was physics not subject at school for that nuttty nut remover?
Roboworker given faulty commands.
So a DEI hire can take the nuts of 3 pylon legs faster than someone can sand blast studs on 1 pylon leg? I am not a believer.