KINGSPORT, Tenn. – When Hurricane Helene damaged facilities across our territory in September 2024, Kingsport District crews faced some of the most difficult access and restoration challenges to date. One especially challenging location was a power line running through Skull’s Gap in the Whitetop area of Glade Springs, Va. Much of the damaged line sat in extremely steep, forested terrain within the George Washington & Jefferson National Forest.
Unfortunately, customers in the Skull’s Gap area were familiar with lengthy outages.
“The terrain in this area has made restoration work especially challenging for years, with some job sites requiring more than two hours of hiking to get to from the road,” said Larry T., distribution system supervisor in Glade Spring. “Our customers have been incredibly patient with us, but they deserve better service.”
The line experienced several outages between 2023 and 2025, with more than half caused by trees outside our right-of-way. The data made it clear: an overhaul of the area’s electric grid was needed to improve reliability for our Whitetop neighbors.
Our team got to work, and engineers designed a project that would ultimately relocate spans of power lines, equipment and poles to accessible locations along Route 600. Drones provided aerial footage that confirmed access options and helped our planners visualize why relocation was necessary.
“The new access is a big deal for our linemen,” Larry added. “It puts a smile on their faces to know they can get to these locations more safely and efficiently.”
Phase one of what became known as the "Skull's Gap Project" involved constructing new lines along Route 600 and installing 32 new poles, with most of the work completed in early January. The final piece of phase one involved the removal of 16 long-span poles across National Forest land. Because the terrain made conventional equipment unsuitable for removing poles, we used helicopters to remove the 16 poles.
The poles were removed via helicopter in early April, as district management worked to honor our commitment to environmental stewardship and invest our dollars wisely. Using a helicopter to remove or replace poles was cost-effective, avoiding the need to construct new roads for trucks to access the area.
HLH Aviation worked with our team to set the new poles in Skull’s Gap, and we also replaced 53 poles across the Kingsport District to improve reliability for hundreds more customers.
“We are always looking for ways to complete our work in the most practical and cost-effective way for the customer, and I wanted our team to make the most of having a helicopter available for our crews,” said Bryan C., distribution work plan manager. “It ended up being the most work our team has planned to complete in a week outside of Hurricane Helene or storm restoration.”
Operations involved detailed landing zone planning, hiking preparation and digging by line crews and forestry teams, pilot coordination and precise outage coordination. This required close coordination among line crews, work coordinators and inspectors, forestry, multiple line contract companies, safety and other internal teams across four areas of our territory. Crews from our Huntington District in West Virginia were deployed to observe and provide additional support.
This work also required coordination and communication with several local agencies, including the Department of Transportation and the U.S. Forest Service.
Phase two of the Skull’s Gap Project is underway, with forestry work already complete. Pole-setting work is scheduled, and the district’s tentative completion date is late 2026.