That flotilla of off-island power trucks and their crew members working their way up Crown Mountain Road are here on a routine assignment, part of a "capital projects" investment that the Water And Power Authority makes annually at this time of year.
"We bring in crews for three-month intervals during hurricane season as long as we have enough capital projects that we can justify," WAPA assistant executive director Glenn Rothgeb told The Source.
This particular crew, along with their cherry-picker trucks and other vehicles, is from Southern Energy Inc./Georgia Power, he said. Its assignment is to do "reconductoring, increasing the size of the feed of the wire" on feeder No. 6. The crew arrived Monday, began work Tuesday and will be in the territory until mid-November, he said.
In addition to the Crown Mountain work, WAPA is putting off-island crews to work on "a series of capital projects on all three islands," Rothgeb said.
On St. John, "we want to extend three-phase power out to Coral Bay," he said. Three-phase power is needed for heavier demand, such as that of hotels, he said, whereas most residences have single-phase power.
WAPA has been bringing in mainland crews for the last few years, he said, and actually had a group working on St. Thomas last fall when Hurricane Georges hit. Some projects have Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, he said, "but in general this is our normal capital expenditures." Crews are selected through competitive bidding, he said.
