PHOTO BY CRIS PETERSON Usually this type of power poles is a silvery, galvanized color, but PEC decided to go with rusty brown to better fit into the Wimberley landscape.
PHOTO BY CRIS PETERSON The new power poles rise about 75 feet. The lights at Texan Stadium, for comparison, are about 80 feet high.
What are those poles?
Wimberley is using more and more electricity.
That’s the reason for the tall, new metal power poles you see popping up around town.
The new system will carry about twice the electrical load of the lines they are replacing, according to Brian Gedrich, the vice president of engineering for the Pedernales Electric Cooperative.
The poles are 90 feet high, but about 15 feet is buried in the ground. The poles that are being replaced are 45-50 feet high.
In comparison, the lights at Texan Stadium are 80 feet high, according to officials at Wimberley High School.
Each pole weighs about two tons, although there are a few that weigh 19 tons and provide additional support.
The poles will stretch from the PEC substation across from ACE Hardware on FM2325 to the substation at the Junction. Upon completion there will be 50 poles.
Gedrich explains that Wimberley is a “winter peaking” town which means more electricity is used when the heat comes on in cold weather than is used by air conditioning during the hot summer months. The deadline for completion of the project is Dec. 1. “We want to make sure we are in service during the winter,” says Gedrich.
Usually, the poles are a silvery, galvanized color, but for Wimberley PEC decided on a rusty brown to fit in better with the landscape, which was also the preference of most of the property owners.
“It’s not our standard pole,” says Gedrich. “I think we have only done that in Wimberley.”
The projected cost of the project, according to Gedrich, is $5-$6 million.