Have you ever looked closely at a utility pole and seen the tags like you see in the picture below? These tags represent a pole that has passed inspection by our contracted pole evaluation vendor, Osmose, and they typically feature the year the inspection was complete, from a pole’s very first inspection until it is retired from service. Typically, wood poles have a useful service life of around 30 years without inspection or treatment. However, well maintained and regularly inspected poles can last up to 50 years.

Osmose evaluates CHELCO’s poles on an eight-year rotation, and inspectors complete a thorough evaluation process that begins with a visual inspection and ends with cleanup and a pass or fail grade. These pole inspections are an important aspect of maintaining safe and reliable power delivery to our members.

2024 Pole Inspection Recap
In 2024, Osmose completed inspections on 8,123 of CHELCO’s approximately 66,000 poles. Of those, 623 were retired and replaced by our Operations crews. Primarily, work was completed in Holt and Baker in 2024.

What’s on deck for 2025?
This year, expect to see Osmose working around Laurel Hill and Paxton, where they plan to inspect approximately 8,000 more poles in 2025.