Aurora Energy says its fast-track pole programme was concluded in December and its renewal and inspection programme — and additional pole nailing — is continuing.
But it has not responded to questions about some red-tagged poles that remain in Alexandra, including a pole on a significant lean in the town’s main street.
A spokesman said Aurora’s $30million fast-track pole programme concluded in December 2017, "having achieved its primary goal of removing the risk of 2910 priority poles and increasing the rate of pole renewals during the 2017 calendar year".
In the 12 months to December 31, Aurora replaced 2800 poles across its network, and replaced, repaired or reassessed about 4500 poles.
The company’s pole renewal and inspection programmes were an ongoing process and were already under way in 2018 "as a priority".
Aurora general manager operations and risk John Campbell said Aurora was developing a detailed plan to invest more than $700million in the networks serving Dunedin, Central Otago and Queenstown over the next decade.
It had also significantly increased the level of pole inspections, its target being that in 18 months’ time Aurora would be inspecting every one of its 51,000 poles on a five-year cycle.
It said additional pole reinforcement scheduled for Alexandra after the failing of three poles in the town last year would be done by the end of next week, and additional pole reinforcement in other Central Otago towns would be done by mid-February.
