Safety Considerations of Joints in Towers Utilizing Corrosion-Resistant Alloy Steels

There has been some concern on the part of the Power Authority of the State of New York regarding certain possible safety aspects which may result from continuous currents induced in transmission line towers, if these currents encounter sufficient joint resistances between tower members to pose shock possibilities to a person making contact across the joints. The concern arose in connection with Alloy A-588 steel towers. Chas. T. Main, Inc. conducted a test program on one of the Power Authority´s operating 345 kV lines of such construction. The test results demonstrated that on this line no shock hazard arises from induced-current voltage drops across A-588 joint resistances.