My first job was at the Centralia hydro project, it goes beyond gravel but that’s 16ft of gravel. Keep in mind those *wires* are 2inch by 12inch flat copper *wires*. A massive amount of juice goes thru that switch yard. A guy got melted wearing a full arc suit but lived due to his PPE. Our safety manager had one arm, burned completely off. The lineman in every state who handle storms are completely unsung heros.
Along with all the valid reasons listed, Ive also heard that snakes love that soothing 50Hz vibration (60Hz in the US) that emanates from HV switch gear – so much so that they’ve been known to wrap themselves around transformers causing it to short out. The jaggedly ass ballast rock acts as a deterrent since they don’t like crossing it.
I like this explanation but I haven’t had much luck in trying to verify how true it is, so it might be bullshit.
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