The University of Arkansas at Monticello announced this weekend’s football game will move to Arkadelphia because the poles at Convoy Leslie-Cotton Boll stadium have fatigue related cracks. At least 19 Arkansas communities have the same light poles.

“When we first heard about it, we were concerned for the safety of our community,” Monticello School District Superintendent Bob Harper says.

With good reason. Other poles from the now out of business Whitco Co. of Fort Worth, TX have had catastrophic failures, collapsing onto bleachers, even crashing into a gymnasium.

“Schools really need to pay attention,” Wes Oliphant says.

Wes Oliphant works for Reliapole Solutions which inspects poles for structural integrity and potential design flaws. Oliphant says he’s inspected approximately 100 Whitco poles in multiple states, 30 of which already show cracks at the base where the pole connects to a mount bolted into the ground.

Read the full article and watch the news excerpt

Now we are into double digits the number of Whitco poles nationwide that have failed catastropically, as well as several non-Whitco poles.  We at ReliaPOLE Inspection Services will continue to stress that this issues is not a “Whitco only” issue.   We urge every University,  School District, Municipal Park & Rec. administrator, to have ALL of their poles routinely inspected by an experienced team, led by a qualified Professional Engineer.

Please click on the link below to read the article in it’s entirety ….

Athletic Business – August 2009

Robert Kruse has joined ReliaPOLE Solutions as a Senior Engineer. With over thirty five years in the engineering and design of utility poles and steel structures, Mr. Kruse brings an extensive array of experience with such industry leading companies as National Specialty Alloys and American Pole Structures. He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Texas.

Phil Skelton joins ReliaPOLE Solutions as a technical support specialist. Phil comes to ReliaPOLE with over nineteen years of experience in manufacturing, logistics and customer service and will be responsible for overseeing materials expediting, ordering and project coordination.

“We’re very excited about Bob and Phil joining the team here at ReliaPOLE Solutions.” Said Zachary J. Oliphant, Vice President of ReliaPOLE Solutions. “Their expertise greatly enhances our ability to take on larger scale projects and serve the needs of our growing customer base. Our capacity to engineer and design a broad variety of transmission poles and steel structures has grown exponentially and we have further lowered our turnaround on design and engineering requests to allow us to exceed our customer’s expectations.”

Operating from Reliapole Solutions’ headquarters near Houston, Texas, RISC will focus on the inspection of sports facility, area and high mast lighting utilizing the latest in visual, Ultrasonic (UT) and Magnetic Particle (MT) inspection techniques to accurately assess the condition and remaining service life of installed poles at facilities throughout North America.

“We’re very excited about the addition of RISC to our product and service portfolio.” Said Wesley J. Oliphant, CEO of Reliapole Solutions. “With a recent marked increase in the number of catastrophic pole failures and the potential liabilities associated with such a failure, RISC’s technology, methodology and experience is timely and applicable to any facility that has installed lighting poles. These would include parking lots, athletic stadiums and facilities, racetracks, airports, refineries and petrochemical plants.”

RISC’s comprehensive inspection programs are available on a one-time or recurring contract basis and can be conducted with little or no facility downtime or service interruptions. All RISC field inspection personnel are ASNT certified and the final analysis of results and reporting is conducted by a team of engineering experts with over 40 years of experience related to poles.

For complete information on RISC or any of the services provided by Reliapole Solutions, please contact us at (281) 259-7000 or visit us on-line at www.reliapole.com/risc