I’ve come across power poles with type plates attached (see photo). They contain clearly readable, on-site information such as:
pole height (e.g. 12 m)
maximum load (e.g. 25 kN)
year of construction
weight
I am wondering how to correctly represent the Newton value (load, force, whatever it’s called) in the data. These seem to be objective, verifiable field survey data, but there does not appear to be a well-established tagging scheme for this. Some experimental keys (e.g. maxforce=*) have recently been removed by other mappers with the argument that it is not being used (see changeset 176628306).
I always get suspicious when other people’s data (or mine) is deleted without replacement, and I would like to find a viable alternative for their time and effort.
How would you tag this kind of information?
Or would you say: better not tag it at all, even if it’s explicitly given on the object?
There is crane:maxload=< metric tons >.
So pole:maxload might be a useful approach. Though the question would be what’s the actual meaning of that load. Like where can it be applied to and in which direction. So I tend to agree with not recording it in OSM without knowing/documenting any such details.
Thanks for your comment. In the context of DIN EN 50341, the meaning of “25 kN” is fairly well defined. It refers to a characteristic horizontal design load of the pole or Shear (often described in German as charakteristische Nennlast or Scherkraft), i.e. a horizontal force the pole is designed to resist. This load is applied at a defined attachment height (typically near the pole top or at the conductor/bracket level) and governs bending and shear at the base/foundation. It is a horizontal structural design value, given without safety factors, and used consistently in the manufacturer’s catalogues (e.g. Valmont).
IMO crane:maxload mainly expresses a vertical load capacity, whereas in the case of power poles the relevant parameter is horizontal. Something like horizontal_load=* or horizontal_force=* might therefore be a closer match?
If that’s a typical value for power poles (seems like given thats described in a DIN EN), I would go for pole:maxload, regardlessof any direction. Just it needs description in our wiki on that meaning.
