Hi all does anyone work with Line workers as i am looking for information on climbing poles with a ladder when a Truck Mounted Elevated Work Platform cannot be used due to access issues. What i am looking for is how do you inspect the pole to ensure that it is safe to climb as i have had a number of incident when poles have falling over after they have been inspected. I am not in the UK just moved to Melbourne Australia and my company are working in some pretty remote areas and i am looking for a foolproof way to ensure that poles are safe to climb. Michael

Michael Your topic reminds me of one of my late* Mum's reminiscences of doing City & Guild courses in electricity, telephone engineering and related subjects during WW2 in order to qualify for a job as an assistant traffic superintendent with the Post Office Telephones. One examination paper question asked how a wooden telegraph pole should be checked to see whether it was becoming rotten or not. My Mum was unsure of the answer so had a guess and wrote something like 'kick it and assess what sound, if any, this makes'. (Steel toe-capped boots were probably standard issue for engineers and linesmen) After the exam she checked and found that an outdoor line maintenance toolkit usually included a proprietary strong metal rod for hitting telegraph poles near their bases. Some time later, she accompanied an engineer to familiarise herself with standard repair methods. The engineer explained that one of the poles they visited needed to be checked because it looked rather old and decrepit. When my Mum mentioned getting the metal rod from the van, the engineer said 'most of us don't bother with that, we just kick the pole and have a good listen.' As you mention being in Australia, I guess that if you are dealing with wooden poles for carrying power or communications cables, they may be vulnerable to being weakened by termites burrowing inside them, especially if they're old poles and any chemical treatment they originally had has lost its potency to repel termites. * late = now deceased rather than retarded or unpunctual! :-)