Stay safe around power lines when doing jobs at your place

If you’re catching up on home maintenance but working around electricity, there are a few things to watch out for. Any work around electricity lines can be dangerous. Here are some important tips to help you stay safe while you do common jobs around your property.

Power Lines Safety For Outdoor Maintenance

If you’re checking or cleaning gutters and downpipes, painting the roof or eaves, or doing a job anywhere near the connection of the power lines to your house, it’s important to know what to do to stay safe.

Sometimes the power line can cross your property and drop quite low or go across other structures such as a garage or a shed. Be aware of the location of the service line to your home when you’re planning how to do a job.

SH60 Tākaka Hill Road will be intermittently closed for maintenance work over a period of five weeks beginning early next month. Drivers should expect “short” delays, according to Waka Kotahi NZTA.

Starting Tuesday 7 February, and continuing for two weeks, the road will be subject to stop-go traffic control from 6am to 6pm between closure points at Aaron Creek Road and Riwaka Valley Road.

Then, between Sunday, 26 February and the morning of Friday, 17 March, every Sunday to Thursday, the road will be closed from 8pm to 5.30am with a brief opening around 1am for queued traffic.

The roadworks, however, are weather dependent and may be rescheduled.

JO RICHARDS

The fledging Ecosanctuary at Cape Farewell has just welcomed its second consignment of translocated seabird chicks.

Last Saturday, 56 pakahā (fluttering shearwater) chicks were transported by boat, plane and car, from Kokomohua in the Marlborough Sounds to HealthPost Nature Trust’s (HPNT) three-hectare predator-proof Wharariki Ecosanctuary.

On arrival, they were placed in burrows at the sanctuary where they will be hand-fed and cared for by a team of trained community volunteers for up to six weeks until they fledge. The birds will then spend two-three years at sea, and, if all goes to plan, the pakahā, which are known to be faithful to the place where they fledged, will return to breed safely on the cliffs of Cape Farewell.

If you’re planting trees, building fences or doing jobs on something tall in your driveway, it’s always important to look up and around you to see where power lines are and keep away from them.

If you need to work near your service line, you can temporarily disconnect the power for safety. The safety disconnection service can be provided by one of Network Tasman’s approved contractors, listed on our website at www.networktasman.co.nz/newconnections

Washing Walls Near Meter Boxes

Remember, water and electricity don’t mix. So if you’re water blasting your external walls keep away from the meter box. Water inside the meter box can cause problems.

Tree Trimming Around Lines

Be aware of the danger of trees coming into contact with the service line that goes from power poles on the street to your property. If you think your trees are getting too close to the line, then it’s important to get the right advice and help to trim them back.

Option 1: You can contact a network trained arborist to take care of the work as they’re trained to carry out this work safely. There is a list of network trained arborists on our website (visit www.networktasman.co.nz/staysafe/trees-andpowerlines)

Option 2: Option 2: The power can be temporarily disconnected using the safety disconnection service so you or your contractor (e.g. a gardener) can do the work safely (visit www.networktasman.co.nz/ staysafe/smart-thinking)

If you have a question you can email the specialists in our team at trees@networktasman.co.nz. We’re happy to provide advice to help keep you safe.

Waka Kotahi’s system manager for the Top of the South, Andrew James, says the closures are necessary to allow annual summer maintenance work to be carried out. “It’ll see resealing of parts of the road on both sides of the hills and other maintenance work, such as clearing water channels and fixing slips and guard rails.”

He understands the roadworks will be inconvenient for regular road users but explains the reasoning behind the schedule. “The nature of the materials we are working with, particularly asphalt, means some of this work has to be done during the day. We can’t lay the material successfully under colder night-time conditions. This work is crucial if we are to keep the road resilient over the coming winter, and I want to thank locals for their patience as our contractors get it done.”

The latest arrivals bring the total of introduced pakahā to just over 100, following the initial batch of 50 which were welcomed around the same time last year (GBW, 21/1/21). The trust had planned to welcome 100 chicks on Saturday but had to accept fewer due to several factors including the delay of the breeding season, the La Niña weather system, and a low supply of food for the chicks.

HPNT aims to translocate a total of 250 pakahā to the Ecosanctuary over a three-year period to create a sustainable population at Cape Farewell. In addition, with help from their partners, the trust is working towards the translocation of 50 toanui (flesh footed shearwater) to the Ecosanctuary in 2023, and the reintroduction of pāteke (brown teal) to the nearby Wharariki Wetland.