Our new, slim power pylons ... complete with earrings!
FOR legions of landscape lovers, electricity pylons have been a blot on the landscape for decades.
Thousands of the 165ft towers line the land, spoiling scenes of beauty with a cat’s cradle of high-voltage cables.
But their days are numbered after a more elegant design was seen in action for the first time yesterday – complete with a pair of distinctive ‘earrings’.
National Grid has begun building a line of the less obtrusive T- shaped pylons, which at 115ft are up to a third shorter than the traditional steel lattice ones, at its training academy in Nottinghamshire.
The pylon, designed by Danish architects and the engineering firm Bystrup, won an international competition in 2011 to find a 21st-century design for carrying high-voltage overhead lines.
The so- called T-pylon – the first new design in almost 90 years – supports two diamond ‘earrings to carry the wires and the insulators that hold them in place. The training line of six pylons being constructed at Eakring follows extensive tests to ensure the towers can cope with environmental stresses such as high winds and the extra weight of ice on the cables in extremely cold weather.
David Wright, director of electricity transmission asset management at National Grid, said: ‘We’ve been able to answer “Yes” to the hundreds of questions that need to be asked before we can introduce a new type of pylon.
‘The training line has enabled us to learn many so many lessons about how to manufacture and build the T-pylon – developed so we could have a 21st-century design as we plan new transmission routes.
‘The T-pylon is not a replacement for the steel-lattice pylon but in some landscapes its shorter height and sleeker appearance can offer real advantages.’ Unfortunately for lovers of unbroken rural views, National Grid is unlikely to bury the cables – as favoured by countryside campaigners – because it costs ten times more, even though countries including Holland and Germany have a policy of putting them underground wherever possible.