The Next Hill

Maintenance Lineworkers Help Ensure Reliability

Just after sunrise, a handful of TVA maintenance lineworkers gathered on a muddy right-of-way strip in Dayton, Tennessee.

They were about as close-knit a crew as you could get: A father-son duo, Jimmy and Josh Hinch. A former high school quarterback, Michael Simmons, and his former wide receiver, James Ray Smith, the foreman.

A lot of them are from Pikeville, Tennessee, a place where folklore runs deep.

“People joke that the playground at Pikeville Elementary had kids climbing poles,” laughed Simmons.

On this day, the team was removing wooden poles, installed in the early 1970s, and replacing them with new steel poles – sturdy, long-lasting and reliable.

It was a big job, but practically old hat for this skilled crew.

And maintenance work is a different beast.

“Construction crews start with a clean slate,” Simmons explained. “For most of our jobs in maintenance, we have to work around existing structures, or we come out after storms.”

Simmons started in 1998 as a contract groundman and later went through TVA’s apprenticeship program. He started out in construction linework, then moved to the maintenance group in 2004.

The crew ticked like a newly wound watch, each member in sync with the next. Two lineworkers stood shoulder to shoulder in the bucket, disconnecting old hardware that held the poles together. The view from ahigh – a nearby creek, steep ridges, backroads – was nothing short of stunning.

But to Jimmy Hinch, the scenery wasn’t the best part.

It was the young man in the bucket beside him – his son, Josh Hinch.

“When my son was growing up, he saw what I did,” said Jimmy, a seasoned lineworker with decades under his belt. “I’d take him to look at the lines, and he took a liking to it. These young kids coming up, this work shapes them. My grandson’s coming up next. He’d make a lineman like you’ve never seen.”

His perspective made it clear that TVA’s story isn’t just about structures or assets. It’s about the people who show up day after day, shaping the landscape with their hands and their history.

Their pride runs deep, their knowledge deeper still. And even after decades in the field, there’s a sense of purpose that never wears thin.

By about noon, they had safely felled the wooden poles and were ready to raise the steel ones. Simmons pointed off in the distance, where this particular transmission line began to crest a tall ridge.

“That’s where we are headed next,” he said. “It takes a lot of preparation on the ground just to get up there.”

There was wisdom in his words, perhaps more than he realized.

From skilled workers to engineers, TVA’s workforce is looking ever forward and upward, steadily growing and strengthening the transmission system with each season.

Technology, materials and generations may change, but one thing remains constant: Someone will always be ready to top the next hill.