Well the answer is below but first a little back story: Recently the security light went out on the property. Because the power company discourages customers from climbing the pole and changing it themselves, they send out a guy with a big truck to change the bulb for you. The bulb guy discovered a bad transformer but he doesn't handle transformers he only changes bulbs so he sent the transformer guy out. The transformer guy, upon fixing the transformer, discovered that the pole had substantial wear and tear so he sent the pole inspector out. The pole inspector came out and looked up at the pole and went "Yup, bad pole." But then apparently his word was not good enough because two other guys showed up a day later, looked up and went "Yup, bad pole." I guess it was official, there was a bad transformer pole on the property.
So they called out the other utility inspectors - the three wise men, only one was actually a woman and she spent 15 minutes spraying herself with OFF before getting out of her truck - and each represented a separate utility. One was for phone service who buries cables underground. Another was for water and sewer and a third was for cable. After they had each marked the area in a different color of spray paint, the pole marker guy was sent out. This actually takes two guys and entails getting out of the truck, attaching an orange flag to the pole and spraying a big orange circle with paint around the base.
Several days later two trucks arrive with four guys and they place a new pole on the ground next to the old pole and leave. Several days after that, three large trucks (with four guys each) and two pickups (which I am guessing contained the pole inspector and his supervisors) congregate like an army of generic mustache wearing hard hat guys. They have apparently come to swap the poles but instead they spent the first 20 minutes playing with the lift bucket. I'm not joking. Two guys sat inside of it and giddily lifted it up and down while the rest of the crew milled around on the ground. Eventually, they made the two stooges get out of the bucket and using only the heavy truck equipment, lifted the old pole right out of the ground.
So they called out the other utility inspectors - the three wise men, only one was actually a woman and she spent 15 minutes spraying herself with OFF before getting out of her truck - and each represented a separate utility. One was for phone service who buries cables underground. Another was for water and sewer and a third was for cable. After they had each marked the area in a different color of spray paint, the pole marker guy was sent out. This actually takes two guys and entails getting out of the truck, attaching an orange flag to the pole and spraying a big orange circle with paint around the base.
Several days later two trucks arrive with four guys and they place a new pole on the ground next to the old pole and leave. Several days after that, three large trucks (with four guys each) and two pickups (which I am guessing contained the pole inspector and his supervisors) congregate like an army of generic mustache wearing hard hat guys. They have apparently come to swap the poles but instead they spent the first 20 minutes playing with the lift bucket. I'm not joking. Two guys sat inside of it and giddily lifted it up and down while the rest of the crew milled around on the ground. Eventually, they made the two stooges get out of the bucket and using only the heavy truck equipment, lifted the old pole right out of the ground.
Using a tight cable on the end of the lift bucket as balance, they pinch the pole with a large "arm" and inch it out of the ground.
Then they lower it to the ground, slowly.
Then they leave these things on the ground wherever they fall. It's how we originally got the poles for the old barn. If you ask they'll remove them of course but that takes a whole other crew of men - obviously.
Using the giant drill bit (seen on the truck) they hollow out the hole a little more and place the new one in the same place as the old one. The entire pole swap itself took only about an hour. Getting to that point took several weeks and by my body count 25 people! Who said big businesses can't run efficiently?