Resolve Double Wood Conditions with Katapult Pro

The influx of broadband deployment means more attachments, and more attachments complicate the pole replacement and attachment transfer process. When that process lags, we end up with double wood. 

Double wood conditions occur after a pole has been replaced but before the communications attachments have been moved, and it’s an issue that keeps growing. More attachments make it more difficult to coordinate the transfer process, and double poles wood poles can sit for months or even years untouched. 

The longer the process goes, the harder it is to figure out what state the pole is in. Utilities don’t want to see double poles peppered across their footprint, but at least then they’d know which ones need to be taken care of. Unfortunately, these phantom poles—areas where it’s unknown if double wood exists or not—are just as common. 

It’s a safety issue, a GIS nightmare, and a huge burden to undertake. But now you can use Katapult Pro to improve records and resolve double wood faster than ever with the Double Wood workflow in Katapult Pro

Double Wood Workflows in Katapult Pro 

The first step is to gather all the locations with suspected double wood conditions. This can be done through a system-wide audit, recent pole replacements, customer complaints, and/or existing records. 

Those locations get uploaded to Katapult Pro and split into subjobs based on their regions. From there, staff check on the status of the pole before sending out construction crews. This can be accomplished through a desktop review or field deployment. 

Desktop Review

Oftentimes, double wood conditions are suspected, but not confirmed. Oftentimes, conditions are only confirmed when the construction crew is sent out to pull stub poles, only to find that the double wood has already been resolved, or it’s stalled out waiting for an attacher. 

Instead, using desktop reviews, staff can quickly assess conditions and create an action plan without unnecessary field visits. 

Checking each location doesn’t require any technical expertise—staff can simply check the pole’s state using Street View and record the double wood status as unknown, resolved, ready to pull the stub pole, or time to transfer. 

*One thing to note, Street View has to be newer than the recorded date for each location with suspected double wood for this to work.

In some cases, a desktop review may not be the best use of time. If dates on suspected candidate locations are all more recent than street view, desktop reviews won’t help. We recommend pulling a random sampling of poles to assess in the back office and using that pilot project to determine if it’d be better to just send out field crews to assess locations. 

Field Assessments

Using a field form, techs can quickly record the state of the pole and environmental conditions, even snapping photos to update records as necessary. 

With user tracking and time stamps, those photos are automatically associated with the correct locations to help true up records. (And these records can be used for other workflows and projects too!) 

Resolving and Removing Double Wood

With those updated field records, teams can take next steps with confidence—no more truck rolls only to find the stub pole has already been pulled! 

With verified data on double utility poles and double wood conditions, back office staff can leverage attachment records to determine who needs to move next and start contacting attachers. 

Using Map Dashboards, teams can visualize and categorize data for better action. Filter out locations based on node data, creating deployment maps for areas where stub poles need to be removed, or where attachers need to transfer to the new pole. 

When resolving double wood, we recommend working with one transfer construction contractor who has agreements with each attacher. This one vendor can employ a one-touch approach to expedite the stub pole transfer process.

Resolving double wood in Katapult Pro does more than ensure regulatory compliance and keep the peace with the PUC. It improves the record-keeping process and helps visualize data for better action. It minimizes manual labor and reduces truck rolls to maximize the use of maintenance dollars. 

It keeps teams connected, improves reporting, and creates healthy projects that actually solve the double wood issue.

Double wood can be solved, but the longer we wait to take action, the bigger the backlog becomes. Get started today! 

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