We buy transmission conductor.

What comes off a reconductored line

A rebuild takes down more than phase conductor. There are overhead ground wires, dampers, spacers, armour rods, suspension clamps and the jumper loops cut at each deadend. Most of that hardware is aluminium or galvanised steel, and it usually ends up in the same pile as the conductor when a crew clears the right of way. Send it as one lot; sorting happens later.

The conductor itself arrives in two shapes. Whole drums are the leftovers, meaning lengths pulled off because the span schedule changed, or spares held for the next section and never opened. Cut lengths are everything else, from a fifty foot jumper to a quarter mile pulled out and coiled in the grass at the base of a structure.

Rebuilds along the coastal prairie and the Ship Channel also produce material that never hung on a tower. Spare drums bought for a section that was redesigned, and lengths bought as contingency and never strung, sit in utility stores and contractor yards. Those are usually the cleanest items in a decommissioned line lot.

• 69 kV sub-transmission conductor from older line sections
• 138 kV and 345 kV bundled phase conductor
• Overhead ground wire, including OPGW where one was fitted
• Dampers, spacers, armour rods and suspension hardware
• Jumper loops and cut lengths taken at deadends
• Reel ends and part drums from stringing

Conductor that has been in service carries surface oxidation and sometimes a dark film from weather and stack emissions. That is expected. The questions that matter are whether the strands underneath are sound and whether the drum has been dragged across a yard.

Two, three and four conductor bundles

At 345 kV the phases are usually bundled, two to four conductors held apart by spacers. A bundle is harder to handle than a single conductor because the subconductors come down separately and are only useful again as a matched set. When a bundle is cut, the lengths have to be kept together or the lot becomes scrap.

Single conductor still dominates at 69 and 138 kV, and it is easier to value on length alone. A drum with most of a run still wound on it is worth measuring and weighing. A coil of the same conductor pulled out in pieces is not, unless the pieces are long enough to restring on a short span.

Ground wire is often overlooked in a pile. Static wire and shield wire are steel or aluminium-clad steel and are bought as metal. An OPGW occupies the same position and carries fiber inside it, so it is reviewed on different terms. If ground wire is in the load, say so separately.

Strand, alloy and what the reel is made of

Overhead conductor is valued on what it is made of before anything else. Aluminium content sets the floor, and the floor moves with the metal market. Above that floor, a construction a utility would actually restring carries a premium over the same weight of mixed scrap. That gap is why identification matters more here than it does on building wire.

Stranding pattern and diameter identify the construction. A 26/7 stranding around a steel core is ACSR. Sixty-one alloy strands with no core is AAAC. ACAR mixes aluminium and alloy strands in the same conductor. The reel tag usually names it, and the cut end confirms it when the tag is gone.

Drum condition is the last piece. A reel that has stood upright under cover holds its shape, while one that has lain on its side in mud for two summers may carry a flat spot the conductor keeps. Say how it has been stored, and photograph the flange where the lagging has failed.

A photograph of the cut end with the strands lit from one side identifies most conductor faster than a written description.

Reel lots, cut lengths and how to offer them

Send the voltage class, the construction if it is known, the approximate length, and where the conductor has been sitting. A photograph of the reel tag, one of the cut end and a wide shot of the pile answer most of the questions that would otherwise need a site visit. If the material is on a right of way, name the structures that bracket it, because that locates it faster than a street address.

Access decides the trip. A full drum from a 345 kV bundle is a crane job. A heap of cut conductor at the base of a structure is a hand carry to a truck. Say which one it is, whether the ground holds a loaded truck after rain, and whether the material sits behind a substation fence with gate and escort rules.

• Voltage class and the line section it came from
• Construction, strand count and nominal size
• Length on the drum, or the approximate length of a coil
• Whether hardware is included in the pile
• Where it sits and what equipment can reach it

Conductor still on an energised right of way is not yours to move. The utility's clearance and salvage process comes first.