Man on a Wire

I recently had the chance to sit down with one of my fellow employees, Mark Jones, who's day job is a lot different than mine...



Mark Jones is a line foreman, which is one of the most dangerous jobs at the company, not to mention in the whole world. “We’re usually #3 on those Top 10 lists of the World’s Most Dangerous Jobs,” says Jones. The lists are based on deaths per 100,000 people. Thankfully, Jones has only seen one fatality at MLGW in his 22 years on the job, which he says is a testament to our strict safety guidelines.

Although the towers he climbs are about 250 feet high, Jones says he wishes they were higher. “I wish we had some 1000 feet tall,” the thrill-seeker says. His idea of fun would be to wash the windows at the Omni Hotel out east. As a teenager, he climbed a 1400 foot tower just for the challenge. But in reality, Jones likes to spend his off time at home with his family.

Not all of the linemen truly enjoy the job like Jones does. “A lot of guys come in scared, but they think they can get through it because the pay is good,” he says. “It takes a while, but you get used to it.”

Jones explains that the tower work he does with his crew ties into reliability. Electricity comes from TVA at a high voltage (115,000-500,000 volts) and is reduced by the towers to distribute at the poles on the street (23,000 volts). These in turn step it down even further for the appropriate levels for customer homes.

Currently, Jones’ crew is in the process of changing out the neutral ground wires with fiber optic wires at Substation 67 on President’s Island. The new fiber optic wires can be remotely switched by the operators at SCADA.

His crew of four linemen and four apprentice linemen uses a roller to simultaneously remove the old wire and install the new wire. Because temperature can affect the sag of the wires, the crew must set them just right so that they don’t get too tight in the winter or too loose in the summer.

Jones says it takes about an hour to climb each tower and that they’ll spend about a day on each tower. The 20 towers on President’s Island were a month-long job. Jones and most of his contemporaries learned to do their job on the job, but today, new hires usually come through Southwest Tennessee’s Apprentice Lineman Program, which is a nine-month course.

Although Jones believes there are women who could do his job, there are only men working on the lines as of now. They range in age from their 20s to their 50s and are in pretty good shape. “It’s a physical job. It’s hot and it’s cold,” he says. But the danger lies with the electricity, which Jones says can be unpredictable. "If it goes in you, it’s gotta come out,” he says, adding that he just wants to retire with all of his fingers and toes intact.

Despite the toughness and danger associated with his job, Jones says he is in awe of his wife, who stayed home with their two daughters (now 15 and 17) until recently. “She’s definitely had the harder job,” he says.

After 20 years of marriage, his wife doesn’t like to hear about his daily experiences. “She worries, but tries not to think about it,” says Jones. “She knows I’ve got to do it, but we don’t talk about it anymore.

Jones can tell you some horror stories, but insists that most accidents are the result of shortcuts. “It’s hard to get hurt of you do everything you’re supposed to do,” he says.