State Technical College's electrical utility programs are able to dig deep to reach great heights, thanks to a recent donation from Ameren Missouri.
"We're replacing old vehicles that were breaking down on us on a daily basis," David Peterson said, and Ameren Missouri donated a digger truck after State Tech called to inquire about one.
Peterson is the department chairman and an instructor of State Tech's electrical distribution systems program, though utility systems technician program students also get to use the digger truck, which State Tech received in September.
"The digger truck is the backbone of the work," Peterson said.
The corkscrew-shaped drill mounted on the truck's mechanical arm digs the holes in the ground that electrical poles are stood in. The truck's arm also lifts and sets the poles, and a hydraulic tamper compacts the dirt around the poles to hold them in place once they're standing.
Rager Plunkett said the hydraulic tamp is one of the most interesting parts of working with the truck.
Plunkett, of Philadelphia, Missouri, is a first-year electrical distribution systems student. "I'm a person that likes to move a lot," he said, and after studying education in college for a year, he decided he wanted to be outside more in his career.
Peterson said it should take about an hour to put in one pole, with one person operating the truck and another handling the pole.
Peterson said State Tech did not have such a truck for most of last fall, and buying a truck would have cost about $150,000 for a used one or about $400,000 if it's new.
State Tech's truck has about 49,000 miles on it, though Peterson said the vehicles do sit idling a lot. He didn't know much about the truck's service history but thought it had been in use in the St. Louis area.
Peterson said in an industry where job openings are driven by retirements and transfers - and so job experience can easily be lost before it's passed on - it's important for his students to be able to get the experience they do with the equipment.
Electricity tends not to allow for learning from mistakes in the field, when live wires are at play. "There's no eraser on a lineman's pencil," Peterson said.